My paintings explore simple lines and shapes within figurative self-portraiture. This has evolved through using emulsion paint to create confident simple lines when mark making and restricting my colour palette to red and blue to help define light and space establishing a more in-depth portrait.
The use of fauvism in the complementary colour movement in the 20th century inspired me to use unnaturalistic colour within self- portraits (Dorra 1976). Significant historical painters Henry Matisse and Andre Derain simplify brushstrokes and colour within this period. This simplification of a self- portrait intrigues me in how I can evoke emotion through colour instead of using a naturalistic palette. Commonly within portraiture, a naturalistic palette uses warm and cool undertones to create shadow and light. Furthermore, I have restricted and simplified my colour palette to red and blue to understand whether these clashing colours can work together to create a figurative self-portrait.
Reading Amy Sillman’s book, ‘Faux Pas: Selected Writings and Drawings’ (Sillman 2022, 51–77) indicated that ‘color theory is not really theory at all; it is merely a description for the protean world on our sensations.’ Implying colour theory is a societal implication and creating colour should be up to each individual. Following this idea, I allowed myself to explore colour within my natural curiosity.
These concepts developed ‘I’m so vain’ a self-portrait using thick simple lines with a limited tonal range. I perceived this to be successful in balancing colour to create a bold self-portrait, however this lack of tonal range left the image feeling flat. After re-evaluating my colour palette I included more varying tones within red and blue. This reflection was influenced by Lisa Brice who similarly uses unnatural, limited colours of blue, red, and green whilst using the combination of figurative and domestic imagery (Tate 2018). The varying tones within her paintings are successfully placed for her figurative paintings to feel alive. Taking inspiration from Brice I prepared, ‘Impaired vision’ spontaneous watercolour sketches to control the compositions of the representation of my body, as well as understanding the colour palette and the spacing of block colour.
Additionally, Sillman claims that painting correlates to drawing. This belief inspired me to develop sketches alongside experimenting with a palette knife to use loose gestural marks creating quick paintings to achieve an abstract tone, seen in the ‘A festive incident: The nightmare before a contemporary affair Exhibition.’ Similarly, gestural expressive brushstrokes are essential to Tracey Emin’s self-portraits, who’s work ‘I followed you to the end’ at the White Cube became influential to my practice. From this I learnt the application of paint is crucial in portraying the image. Although the abstract nature was useful in developing looser painting skills for the underpainting, the illustrative style is more effective in achieving depth within the light and shade in the finished piece, due to simple lines and shapes.
Needing a large amount of affordable paint, I explored emulsion paint when developing ‘I’m so vain’ and ‘Degree show plans’. I found the emulsion to have similarities with acrylic, however due to the thick consistency I had to be confident in placing lines and shapes, allowing my painting style to become more colour blocked and illustrative, similar to the work of Alex Katz who uses simplified colour to create bold dynamic portraits. Additionally, emulsion is commonly used as household paint which outlines the domestic narrative of my work. The relationship of the domestic can be conveyed through the materiality of the paint which enhances the simplified lines. Incorporating figurative elements have been successful in composition and style, in comparison to focusing only on facial expressions seen in ‘A festive incident: The nightmare before a contemporary affair Exhibition.’
In hanging my unstretched paintings in ‘Holy trinity of katie’ and ‘A festive incident: The nightmare before a contemporary affair’ exhibitions. The works appeared unfinished and distracted the viewer away from the self-portraits themselves. Therefore, despite the importance of these artworks in the development of my mark making, the upscaling of artwork has been more beneficial in composition and depth of colour, seen in ‘Degree shows plans’. In conclusion, the scale of self-portraits has been important in developing my illustrative style of painting with simple lines and shapes.
Bibliography
“Alex Katz Portraits - National Portrait Gallery.” 2025. Npg.org.uk. 2025. https://www.npg.org.uk/business/publications/alex-katz-portraits.
Dorra, Henri. 1976. “The Wild Beasts -- Fauvism and Its Affinities at the Museum of Modern Art.” Art Journal 36 (1): 50. https://doi.org/10.2307/776115.
Sillman, Amy. 2022. Amy Sillman: Faux Pas: Selected Writings and Drawings. After 8 Books.
Tate. 2018. “Art Now: Lisa Brice – Press Release | Tate.” Tate. 2018. https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/art-now-lisa-brice.
“Tracey Emin.” 2022. White Cube. 2022. https://www.whitecube.com/artists/tracey-emin?_gl=1.
“Alex Katz Portraits - National Portrait Gallery.” 2025. Npg.org.uk. 2025. https://www.npg.org.uk/business/publications/alex-katz-portraits.
Dorra, Henri. 1976. “The Wild Beasts -- Fauvism and Its Affinities at the Museum of Modern Art.” Art Journal 36 (1): 50. https://doi.org/10.2307/776115.
Sillman, Amy. 2022. Amy Sillman: Faux Pas: Selected Writings and Drawings. After 8 Books.
Tate. 2018. “Art Now: Lisa Brice – Press Release | Tate.” Tate. 2018. https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/art-now-lisa-brice.
“Tracey Emin.” 2022. White Cube. 2022. https://www.whitecube.com/artists/tracey-emin?_gl=1.