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Family self-portrait

2023

Pastel crayons on Ingres paper

I have produced several self-portraits over the years. As often happens, they appear grumpy or even aggresive due to the way I glare at the mirrors whilst doing them. My family urged me to produce a "happy" self-portrait, and nothing makes me happier than being with my grandchildren.

I knew that getting a photo to work from would never be logistically possible, so I used a number of photos of each of my grandchildren and developed the composition. I worked from the top left to bottom right on Ingres paper using pastel pencils.

I'd never produced a multiple portrait work before and its was quite stressful, particularly as the children wanted to be recognised from it. As each face was finished to my (partial) satisfaction, it got increasingly stressful. The last face was particularly difficult as I felt very uptight about "spoiling" the work.

At a family gathering, we attempted to recreate the picture - with limited success!

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