Wanderlust: pattern portrait

The last week of the Wanderlust “Patterns” theme and we’re back with the organiser Kasia Avery (website, Instagram).

It was too much to hope that there wouldn’t be any more faces… and as for creating an “abstract self-portrait”, well, it’s only my determination to have a go at all of the Wanderlust lessons that meant I even attempted this one.

In an effort to stick to the abstract nature of the lesson, I may have made some dubious colour choices at several points along the way. Particularly with the green line drawing; I think my idea was that green would provide a contrast with the purple and red in the background papers, which it did, but it was just too dark.

I am getting more comfortable making the initial collage paper layers on these mixed media pieces. Admittedly a lot of that is just accepting that it doesn’t really matter what it looks like when you glue the papers down, because you can always paint over anything you don’t like.

I persevered, committing to the colours already in the piece by adding the red outline. That was a bit much on its own, so I broke up the edges with the blue squiggles and then balanced it with some purple mark-making.

I can’t say I’m in love with it, but that’s more to do with hating pictures of me, even abstract ones… It has grown on me a bit, I just wish I’d decided to do it as a portrait of someone else.

Class:

• Wanderlust 2019