Colourama

An acrylic self portrait, painted on a 20”x24” canvas, back in end of January into the beginning of February 2023. This was my major course project for my grade 11 art class, in which I had to either paint a self portrait or a portrait of a friend or family member.

My concept for this piece was inspired by the song ‘Sweet Dreams, TN’ by the last shadow puppets, and that was because my concept was about when you hear a song and you feel like it changes the chemistry of your brain, and whether its a song that you relate to the lyrics of or a song that the instrumental portion just hits your ears and your brain the right way, its something that makes you feel whole, and completes you. And for me, the aforementioned song is one that makes me feel this way, and it has since I first heard it in 2019.

The title is from another song by the Last Shadow Puppets, called ‘Aviation’, specifically the line “the colourama in your eyes, takes me on a moonlight drive” and when I first heard the song I actually had to look up what ‘colourama’ means, and the definition being ‘A colour spree taken by a designer’ which I felt would be fitting, as I wanted to use an analogous colour palette that wasnt the typical colours I would use for a portrait. The reasoning behind using a line from this song and not one from the song its attributed to isnt very deep, I personally just really like the album, and so I picked another song off of it that I get similar feelings from. The song ‘Aviation’ has a buildup to one big verse at the end, much like ‘Sweet Dreams TN’ and so it gives you that same fulfilling feeling to listen to it.