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Essence is a portrait that features a woman adorned with flowers around her head and neck. She holds a parrot in her hands and sunflowers lay across her lap.

Essence

Sarah Dettling

Oil on Canvas

This piece was created as a final work for a figure painting course. We were challenged to created a portrait of ourselves in a style of a master painter who we thought emulated our own essence. I dreaded the task of staring at my own face in a mirror, or photo so this "self" portrait was created without looking at all at the subject.