Painting a Portait - stepping back from the age of Instagram

Throughout my school career, there have been cycles of self portraits in the art department. Each year, the lower sixth embark on the theme of 'Identity', eventually leading to an oil painting self-portrait. It's such an iconic thing at my school, and now that I have the task of creating my own, it's pretty daunting. 

Not only is there an element of legacy, and a standard to meet, but there's also the question of how I want to permanently capture myself. In an age of instagram and snapchat, I'm very familiar with my own face. I see it all the time, and capture myself on different days, in different moods, and different outfits. But all of those photos are fleeting. They eventually get buried in streams of more and more photos on a screen. However with something as singular, and as tangible as a painting, it's very different. I have one canvas, one frame to convey myself at 16. And in the fast-paced digital world, having only one frame is not something I'm used to. There's also the added dimension of interpretation, both of the artist, and the viewer.

 It's that permanence of a portrait that puzzles me. So I decided to go back to basics, and capture myself in a very raw light. It's a starting point for sure.





-LEXI

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