Self-Portrait Painting Flowers by Narelle Zeller

Over the past years I have been working on a series of floral portraits inspired by the women around me. Many an hour has been spent at the easel painting flowers, so to me it made sense to paint myself in this act. Although circumstances led to this self-portrait being created earlier than planned, it felt that adding a painting of myself to this series would complete it. In the painting the light flows from behind, to light the flowers that I am painting and draw the focus to them. This is as it would be with any painting, with the light on the subject rather than the artist. Instead of depicting myself painting on a panel, the flowers I am painting are real and reaching towards me to signify the feeling of bringing things to life in a painting. This is especially true in the art of realism.