Self Portrait with Straw Hat

Self Portrait with Straw Hat

(acrylic on mountboard, 8x8 in)

Week 4 of the Shipley Art Gallery challenge, and we were asked to "create a self-portrait of you in your favourite room wearing your favourite hat or headwear. Make the hat the focus of the work."

When it comes to hats and me, favourites don't come into it, but at least this one hides me a bit.

Hats and Bags

Hats and Bags

(acrylic on board, 30 x 30 cm)

I was surprised at how long this took to finish. There was a lot of balancing of tones, colours and implied textures to get right and the background needed adjusting several times to make the hats sit properly in relation to the wall. 

But it's finished now and ready to frame. I think it makes a nice pair with the Jelly Shoes painting, but will also hang quite well with the smaller Caps and Bags.

 Jelly Shoes

(acrylic on board, 12 x 12 in)

Caps and Bags

(acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 cm)

When I put the final touches to Hats and Bags, I felt a bit deflated because I realised I'd probably come to the end of this thread. There are more hats I could paint, but for now I think I'm done with them. I have a similar idea to explore which may result in one or two related works, but we'll have to see how that progresses. 

"What to do next?" is often a problem when you've done no work on the side to draw out lurking thoughts. The thing to do, though, is ensure you don't let a time of contemplation become a long fallow period. I find it becomes so much more difficult to start work again then.

You can leave your hat on.

Hats WIP
(acrylic on board, 30 x 30 cm)

For a man who hates wearing hats, I sure do love painting them. I'll move this along a little more today.