Animated self-portrait (my father coming through)

[Carlos Ygoa]

Thomasin,

I am also struck and impressed by your use of vivid/warm colours in the shadow areas and yet they manage to recede and not jump forward.

I have taken a long look at this self-portrait and compared it with two others from your site (Self-portrait as Shelmerdine and Self-portrait with migraine) and although I see similarities in some aspects, I see how your handling of the paint has evolved in 2 short years--from a more refined, "polished" finish to a more energetic juxtaposing of shapes of colour, and with a lot more impasto. I also notice how you are less inhibited by the "tightness" of drawing and are letting colour have more protagonism. I am curious, if you will permit me, are all of your works moving towards this direction, or is it just in the area of self-portraits? And was this a constant effort or was it a natural flow? I am curious mostly because I have seen this happen in other artists