I by no means am trying to elevate my position to these other great painters. But what I would like to show by a few examples of Picasso’s and Rembrandt’s work is that there is much variety in the way each painter represents there face in each new work. In style, medium, lighting, age and more. Obviously there is no one way to do a self portrait and those who have tried to limit art by there own constrained understanding have always irritated myself and other painters.
Faces of Rembrandt
Faces of Picasso
Faces of Urig
Some of what I have gained through this time tested art of the Old Masters is a deeper understanding of myself and the link it plays in understanding others around me. There is nothing easy about painting. I am sorry some try to think that it is. It is in my opinion something very hard, sometimes even difficult. We can be lifetime students if we wish, always feeling like the infant with so much more to learn.
One young artist in the 5th grade told me that artists are smart, he remembers Leonardo as being an inventor, even possibly for the vision for the first helicopter and tank. Nothing easy here.
To me self portraiture is about learning and trying to grasp something more. Each time we come back to it we learn something new and it comes out a little different with each exploration.
We as Artist take the complex and try to simplify it down to its basic visual elements, and add heart and soul and personal expression and out comes ART.
See Self Portrait workshops as Urig makes a US national tour from east to west coast. We can learn so much together.
© 2011 Daryl Urig
