Self Portrait Study Sketch after Van Gogh, oil on paper

Actually I had a lot of fun with this self portrait. It was made in time of Covid isolation for actual Christies IG open call.

Working on this piece, I’ve tried to stick to original as much as possible, but reinterpretating it on my way. Like starting from the sitter, a doctor, as I did study medicine myself. And accentuating which defines me most.

Flowers and colors

Or moving on to the flower, possibly Digitalis, at Dr Gachet’s table. I’ve painted it as a bouquet of spring flowers from my garden. Just because “I must have flowers, always, and always.”as Claude Monet said.
Here are tulips, that I’ve painted several times before, and daffodils, for I never can’t get enough of that particular spring yellow color. Then I’ve put some chess flowers into the bouquet. It is an hommage to my home town, as Fritillaria Meleagris or Snake’s head grows in Ljubljana Marshes, becoming quite an extinct species by now. And as my late friend once said to me: ”Why you don’t paint some chess flowers, they are so beautiful.” Or in different words: “Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” – Georgia O’Keeffe

Brushes and art

I’ve painted myself holding brushes, made them green, just to seem as picked flowers. Referencing to art, as Oscar Wilde said: “A work of art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it. That is all that is to be said about our relations to flowers. Of course man may sell the flower, and so make it useful to him, but this has nothing to do with the flower. It is not part of its essence.”

Books and creating

Then I’ve put some books on the table. In a way referencing Albert Camus: “Creating is living doubly. The groping, anxious quest of a Proust, his meticulous collecting of flowers, of wallpapers, and of anxieties, signifies nothing else.”

What more to say, as happily we are out of times of isolation by now, it might happen that I come back to this sketch, just to paint it in oil on canvas…actally I am already looking forward to it 🙂

Tamara