His Favourite Hat: Self-Portrait in Orange & Blue

My first painted self-portrait. Painted from a mirror reflection looking away, over my shoulder. 

I later discovered that this is how I also choose to paint en plein air, painting from memory of the view glimpsed at 90 degrees, rather than viewing the image next to my easel.

As this was my first, the placement on the canvas was not well planned. As a result, there was too much, distracting negative space on the left side. I decided to paint and vignette a scene to interpret an issue (for me) arising from the portrait.

The view shows an imagined section of  highway with a series of hills, my fave riding experience. I am just cresting the first hill, dropping out of view on my Ducati motorcycle, my true love. Although I an and will never be "a Harley Man", my "favourite" hat however, happened to be a Harley Davidson brand- I liked the drab orange and, it was on sale! I lost the hat in Haliburton, Ontario, while on vacation.

In 2025, the canvas was cropped on the left side to 20 inches, reducing the background area. The background was painted out as a plain field of dark colour, as was my original intention. The portrait now hangs with one of my young bride at 20 years young, painted in 2025.