Painted for the 1999 BP Portrait Award, this self portrait was accepted and exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, London and Aberdeen Art Gallery in Scotland. The cap was a very battered Adidas cap I had brought back from Bali. Formally it's a very important element giving both a frame to \ the face, a colour contrast to the predominant reds and oranges of the painting, and a continuation with the background division, the head being compressed into the lower third of the composition. The painting makes references to Chardin and Rembrandt who both painted themselves in head gear something like this.

Cap,(self portrait)
76x65, oil on linen, Feb 1999

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