A Mirror, a Selfie, an AI Impression — and yet the Portrait Endures

This weekend I had the privilege in my early career to receive two portraiture commissions, which has spurred a few reflections on portraiture.

Why does portraiture now hold a unique legacy that can endure past an individual's expiry, that a selfie, an AI impression, and a mirror cannot carry?

Now that I am a paid artist, how will this affect how I will paint the image?

How will I juggle a sitter's expectation and their lifetime of self-image creation that may contradict my interpretation of them or how the final painting may render them?

Does knowing a person versus a stranger affect the final painting?

Whilst I am still yet to explore these questions as I embark on these next paintings, I hypothesise there will be an adjustment of creative expression, balanced by a sympathy towards the sitter. To do their image justice based on how they describe themselves and want to be seen, whilst also capturing a presence and soulful essence that perhaps they do not realise they radiate.

Perhaps being a portrait artist is also about seeing the 'unseen', their trueness.

Having a sensitivity to perceive something in the individual beyond face value, on a metaphysical level, yet also painting face value.

It is about balancing revealing the mask and what is behind the mask, because ultimately everyone wears one and is remembered by one, by loved ones and those in their social circle over a lifetime.

The mask isn’t necessarily untrue, but it is the version of them that is actually their own self portrait, in the sense that they have painted and attached this story or personality onto themselves.

I believe this is where a selfie, an AI impression and a mirror can never match the truthfulness in a portrait, because these reflections can be edited by the individual.

Edited in the sense that they can make the image of self, appear as their own minds perceive.

Whereas there is a vulnerability in sitting before me as an artist and hoping that I will expose the same image they see. There is a beauty and surrender in this process of exposure. As an artist guiding a sitter through this process, I have a responsibility to reassure the sitter I will honour them, that their essence will come through, not just the superficial 'likeness.'

And that is why more and more I am understanding the importance of an interview to accompany a sitting.

Whilst I do not always have the advantage of knowing the person personally enough, I can be a detective, becoming a kind of biographer, informed by their narrative.

In a single painting, I can capture a moment that is a glimpse of a lifetime, incorporating their personal masks, balanced by how their loved one 'experiences them', alongside the physiognomic representation and personal symbols.

This is the privilege I now will have as a portrait artist. People are trusting me to do something very special. Something capable of outliving even their physical bodies. Something that will remain ageless and frozen whilst they may age, yet continue to contain something that will be recognised and cherished.

Because living in the image is a snapshot of their soul that a “selfie”, a “mirror”, and “AI” can never compete with.

Grace xx