self portrait

self portrait -oil on linen - 60cm x 40cm

A self portrait I played around with over the last couple of days. I again tried to dive yet deeper into what I struggle the most with in painting - being patient. I forced myself to focus deeply on what I am doing, pushing more and more into directions where the resistance to keep going is the highest. It feels like such a cliche at this point but the more I paint the more the notion of "having to go where you least want to go in order to become better" sounds true to me. Each of these struggles ends up with me actually feeling like I made one step towards being a better artist. It's supercool because this way improvement does not feel like something that magically happens somehow but more like this tangible real thing that you "get" if you are willing to push through to the other side.
Well I don't know how much truth there is in that but I feel like believing in it for now, it seems to help haha.

Have a great day everybody. See you next time :)