Self
Artist/Maker and role
Darren McDonald (b.1966): Artist
Production date
2007
About this object
Melbourne artist McDonald, who began painting in his 30s, is a three-time finalist in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize. His portraiture, mostly of humans and/or animals, has also been included in the Sulman and Kilgour prizes. McDonald's work is reliant on spontaneity and simplicity. Choosing to omit background embellishments to focus solely on subject, he says: “Mostly I do an outline and then I fill it in. The outline takes the time and the filling in is very quick – the way a child would draw. There is very little walking away – it’s about looking.”
McDonald’s fleeting brushstrokes convey a soulful innocence through paring back to only the most essential. His portrait ‘Self’ exhibits McDonald’s restrained approach evidencing the rich communicative capacity of negative space.
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