Self-portrait with Migraine
 

This is a painting I did 2 years ago. It is 36" x 36", oil on canvas. I painted it whilst I was having a migraine, although it partly the migraine and partly the effect of the pain-killers that influenced the feeling of the painting.

I really like this, especially the colour scheme you've used. I'm lucky in that I rarely get headaches, let alone migranes, which I understand are hugely painful.

Thank-you very much, Mary Ann. Since painting this portrait of myself I have been able to control my migraines more and more, and now only have to take 1/2 an aspirin to stop them happening when they begin, and am migraine-free for most of each month.

Thomasin, This piece as well as your "Figure in Movement" (which in your site was called "Torso" or "Torso II" if I am not mistaken) are two of my favourites from your collection in your site (I believe I have mentioned this to you before).
I like the rivetting look this portrait has and the bold full-front. Reminds me of some of the great psychological portraits of the past. I like the way you simpl

you have painted it very well. whew!!! I can feel your migraine in that picture. now i'm having a headache in that painting..hahaha.

Carlos, thank-you very much (yes, I do change the names of paintings sometimes as I find something more fitting to my intentions, or perhaps it is because I am very forgetful). I appreciate your comments very much!

Thank-you, too, for your kind comments, Xander!

Very interesting self study Thomasin - I like it a lot. I too noticed the faintness of the mouth. Almost as if you wished to silence that migrane! Or perhaps you are a quiet person. I know if I were a painter, I'd be tempted to play down my mouth since I rarely use it to speak with.

Thank-you, Heidi. With this painting I didn't set out to paint the theme of migraine, I just happened to get one whilst the work was in progress, and seemed the most prominent thing about me as the work was being finished. The faintness of the mouth is actually a compositional element - in the struggle of finding something that worked the mouth happened. Although, I do think that , even if not deliberately, everything I put down related to the migraine.

Thomasin,

I guess I overlooked this! It's one of my favorites from your website. The eyes strike me immediately. "Mute suffering" is what I think of, and now that I read these comments about the mouth, it seems to fit in. Somehow you've expressed visually the feeling of pressure in the brain, both by the expression on your face (amazingly painted with such minimal detail) and the light around your head.

Actually to me the colors are very evocative. The dark, warm color of the majority of the painting seems like dense brain fog, or an "aura" in migraine language, that you can't see through. The relative coolness of the actual aura (in color/art language) looks to me like a visual description of pulsating pain. Fascinating portrait!

Alex, thank-you once again for seeing so much in my work that I would never notice (I feel so profound after reading your posts!). Have you ever done any art criticism for journals and newspapers? I am so pleased you respond to this one so well.