"BirdWoman" Mixed Media 24 x 36 inches Char Baxter 2024
One of the most difficult subjects to paint is yourself. After searching through hundreds of family pictures and selfies, I found a couple of photos that would help me capture a likeness that would contribute to the concept I had in mind ... that of a BirdWoman. Following onto the Blackbird series I've been working on, this self-portrait is an imaginary study of how the blackbird creature has become a magnet for my creative heart.
"The Family Tree" is a work of art that I created to explore and exorcise some of the strong emotions in those letters and stories. With a well-documented family tree that goes back to the late 1700s, there is quite a lot to unpack. Somehow, in the process of making this piece, I felt some of the weight of time lift and soften with newfound understanding.
"As an artist, like an actor, sometimes you slip into character as you create. In this work, I start thinking how a blackbird might feel or see colors and what the creature searches for in life. Is it the next bug or worm ... or love and happiness?"
The Process
Capture the Likeness
I picked a photograph that had enough light and contrast on the face to be a good foundation for an oil portrait. I began with a pencil sketch on canvas and then refined it with Quadricine Red Oxide acrylic painted lightly over the pencil lines.
Paint the portrait
Once dried, I began painting in oils.
Even so, I really don't consider myself a "painter" given that I work in multiple media. But sometimes a piece needs that traditional oil portrait to create a dichotomy between the expected and the unexpected.
Creating the story
The portrait floats on a background of the black of the blackbird and my mythical hair. I'm stitching batik dyed strips of fabric, embellishing threads and fibres, jewels, keys and feathers to capture the spirit of the blackbird in my self portrait.
Stitching the watercolor paper and painting the background
To give the impression of the weight of history, I painted the canvas backgound with a dark Indigo acrylic. I stitched outward to the edges of the canvas with artificial sinew, forming the branches and drawing the eye upward.