Dimensions: 60x80cm
Painted: 2002
Materials: Acrylic on MDF board
Private collection
The story behind Self portrait 2002
Every artist who has ever admired Rembrandt eventually confronts the self-portrait. He painted himself obsessively across his entire career — none more honestly than his last, completed the year he died. That tradition was very much in mind when this was attempted in 2002.
The circumstances were entirely practical. Digital cameras were still a new thing and the one available was several years old, capable of only a 640×480 pixel image. Indoor light produced terrible results. The solution was to set the camera on timer, prop it up, and take the photo outside — at the front of the house, natural light, whatever was there.
The location is the front of a rented house in a period of genuine hardship. Barely enough money for rent or food. The Rembrandt comparison is not made lightly — his final self-portrait shows a man at the end of his life with nothing left to prove and no reason to flatter himself. This one shows a man at the beginning, with very little, and still convinced that a life as an artist was possible.
Despite the low resolution source and the inexperience of the time, the painting holds up. Sometimes limitations produce something more direct than technical mastery would allow.
Source image of realism painting Self portrait 2002
