Picasso and I

OK folks, here it is. I am laying my heart out in the open for all to view. Please be kind! My son gave me this beautiful Snowshoe Siamese kitten. He even named him for me....Picasso. So, I naturally wanted to paint him and I decided to tackle another self portrait in the process. Picasso was so easy to paint. My husband says I never have trouble painting those I love. But, I have had a difficult time with my self portrait. I am told by one friend that I am too harsh with my likeness and I am younger looking than I painted myself......so I tweaked it a little. Then my next friend said I did not look anything like she thinks of me....meaning my attire and hairstyle. She suggested my usually short hair cut and blue jeans. Well of course I dressed up nice and fixed my hair and makeup. After all, this is for posterity and no one wants to be remembered as a hag, unless you are Van Gogh. Anyway, enough of this vanity problem. Lets discuss the process.

I did a slew of photos one day after getting all gussied up. Picasso was such a ham and just loved the attention, so he was very accommodating. I have a huge mirror in the bathroom which I set up my easel in front of and got the selfportrait drawing down and added the figure also from life. Picasso was then added from the photos and observations of him in the studio. I then moved to the studio. I had a mirror adjacent to my easel so I could work from life on myself. This is the painting so far. I have worked on it for about 25 hours. Let me just say this, It is the most difficult thing I have ever done, being objective about myself and not letting vanity interfere. I did Picasso in about four hours in one sitting. He was soooooo easy to paint. Brett is right, I have no problems painting those I love.

Over the next few days, I will post further progress with this painting. Maybe I will even get a good likeness that everyone agrees is me.