Thoughtful Accumulation

22
46 x 60 cm
Acrylic on Canvas

Portraits and me

The first painting I made (as a young adult) was a portrait. I was most inspired at the time by the BBC Star Portraits show, and that progressed in a year to 25-ish A2 sized portraits and 5 more conceptual works as a solo show. I'd do the show, it would rock, and everyone would bow before me. Instant success!

They didn't though.

It sucked.

I sold one painting at the exhibition - not a portrait - and subsequently in the 6 years since, only sold one of the portraits.. and I never made another portrait (in the literal sense anyway) again.

Until this year. :D This year the first National Portrait competition takes place in South Africa, and I'm entering. Bought the largest canvas I could fit in my 'studio', it didn't fit in the car, switched it for a smaller car-sized version, and painted my heart out for a month. And it paid off, came out beautifully. Only I can't show it to anyone, as the judging will be anonymous, and I'd be disqualified. So my greatest work of the year gets to wait in bubble wrap until August!

Which of course is super frustrating, it's really gotten me in the mood for more portraits, but I can't use it to advertise, such a catch 22!

The cool part is this: The exhibition takes place in the same venue where my failed solo was held, I will have come full circle with portraits, and if I win it will have started with an epic failure, and end in (the first day of the rest of my life? er..) well in exposure, and a ridiculously large cash prize - if I am one of the 40 finalists, the work goes on tour through South Africa for a year, which would also be really great. But the winner gets more publicity, and as someone who really sucks at marketing but aspires to greatness, that would be a nice boost! haha

So that's what I've been brooding on, but until I can unveil the painting, here are some more works from my not so awesome Solo show in 2008: The Demise of Innocence in children.

Absence
46 x 60 cm
Acrylic on Canvas-board

Absence II
60 x 46 cm
Acrylic on Canvas-board

FYI The concept of the exhibition was basically about how children don't play outside anymore, when I was young we lived in parks, and these-days parks are abandoned, there is broken glass in the sand pits, dodgy teenagers hang out on the swings (I know this because I turned into one of those dodgy teens) There are just empty beer bottles and used condoms, and all the kids are indoors, and it saddens me how in such a short time things have changed so radically, and it says a lot about this world. Oh and the titles of the kids portraits were all numbers, in keeping with the theme.