Humument Self-portrait at 50
Gouache and pen, 17.8 x 12.7 cm, 1987
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Self-portrait
Acrylic on board, 12.7 x 12.7 cm, 1987
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The most recent self-portrait that I've made was as a result of a request from Artsite in Bath who had asked a number of artists to work on images of themselves for a special exhibition and book. Since it was near my fiftieth birthday I decided to make a new page of A Humument which with the usual generosity of Mr Mallock provided me on page 50 itself with the ideal text. The page also did service in its printed form as the raffle ticket for my 50th birthday cricket match at the Oval and will also be the first replacement page of what I, forever the optimist, expect to be the third revised edition of A Humument.

A small self-portrait etching made during my short residence at Vicarage Grove where I stayed, after leaving my Grove Park home, in a dingy lodging house features an aspidistra left in my care by my son Leo.

The most ambiguous form of self portraiture I've made however is the series Curriculum Vitae, which tries to make of my biography a series of metaphors for the artistic life.  > >

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