IN THE STUDIO
Happy portraits are quite
cheesy... I don’t want to be
so obvious. A Mona Lisa
smile is as far as I will go
the composition’s satisfying
resolution. “By painting us in a natural
way rather than a stereotypical
feminine way, I wanted to celebrate
female painters today with a feeling of
determination,” Ania told the National
Portrait Gallery at the time.
Ask if she finds it harder to paint
herself and she politely says no
several times before continuing.
“I love painting myself because I don’t
see it as me. It’s more that if I want to
do something really quickly, I’ll just
use myself as the model. And I’m
really not critical about myself either,
I can paint myself however I like.”
Other people have read a lot into
the fact that Ania looks “really sad” in
her self-portraits, but she isn’t about
to paint herself smiling any time soon.
“I find it quite cheesy,” she says.“Happiness is one emotion that
everyone can read. I don’t want to be
so obvious. Occasionally I might have
a little Mona Lisa smile but that is as
far as I will go.” She prefers a more
ambiguous facial expression to add to
the intrigue. “I like to keep it low-key
and get people involved in the story,
maybe picking up on an emotion that
they’re feeling. They might be feeling
down and contemplative and they
might see themselves in that.”
Her latest paintings have begun
with a charcoal drawing directly onto
the canvas, the thick black lines
helping her to visualise the final
piece. Once she’s happy with the
drawing, she will dust off the canvas
with a dry brush to avoid dirtying the
subsequent paint layers. A faint line is
left behindin thegrainofthecanvas.
Artists & Illustrators 41