Self Portrait 2

	Artist: John Bellany
	Title: Self Portrait 2
	Year: 1980
	Medium: pencil & watercolour on paper
	Dimensions:
	Suggested topic: Portraiture
	Source: RSA
	View full screen image of this work
	Open print version of this work
© the artist
Description: John Bellany visited the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald. The starkness of this experience led Bellany's work away from the decorative, colourful painting associated with the Edinburgh School towards a much more challenging style.Bellany's work often uses images drawn from the folklore surrounding his connection to the fishing industry or from the pain and suffering of mankind. In the 1980s Bellany's health deteriorated and he received a liver transplant. A long period of hospitalisation resulted in many watercolour portraits of his doctors, his family and himself. In this painting, Self Portrait 2, a skeletal figure hovers over the artist's shoulder, reminding us of the fine line between life and death.The piercing gaze of the artist is central to the whole image. He seems to question the viewer, and his thoughtful expression is very challenging.The painting has been executed in thin washes of watercolour over pencil. The patches of colour appear like stains, dabbed into wet paper and allowed to bleed out. Bellany has used a palette split between warm and cool hues, using heavy maroon reds blending with dark blues in a way that is reminiscent of a deep bruise. The face is portrayed with angry orange skin and a ruddy beard, which accentuate the penetrating pale eyes. This very expressive image is painted in stark, graphic tones. The violent brush-work adds to a sense of menace and foreboding.The mood here is one of defiance. It is almost as though the artist is challenging death to attack him. He seems confident of his ability to fight for life and survive. There is a confrontational, almost angry feel to the image. How do you imagine painting this picture would have made the artist feel, in the aftermath of a life-or-death operation? Do you think this is a painting made to pass the time, or out of necessity because the artist had a passion to record his feelings?