Beatrice Batungbacal
Acrylic on canvas
20x25.5cms
The shower (2023)
December 31, 2023
Despite what some people think, my process of making art is actually less spontaneous / unbidden and more of just showing up in front of the canvas even if I don't feel like it. But there are those rare times, like when I made this painting, where inspiration strikes and I have that Eureka moment.
Earlier that day, I visited an art exhibition on Lucian Freud (NOT the psychologist himself but his painter grandson who is also kinda psycho) at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid entitled “New Perspectives.” Freud (1922-2011) was renowned both as a painter and as the grandson of psychologist Sigmund Freud. His distinct painting style embraced the use of distinguishable strokes and a subdued color palette. His subjects often stood exposed and shed of their societal veneers, or were quite literally painted in the nude.
Following my visit to the exhibit, I went home to take a shower (as one does) and was left in a rather contemplative mood. I kept thinking about the paintings I just witnessed and the colors and stories behind each one when I caught a glimpse of my reflection on the shower head. Then it was like an instinct. I HAD to get out of there and paint. It was like a glimmer of magic that I had to catch or else it'd go away.
This past year had a lot of me running and chasing those glimmers of magic, I think. At full force and with all my might. Seizing every opportunity and making lemonade out of all the lemons. I guess I was just scared that they'd all go away if I tried to slow down.
My favorite tita later pointed out that this was my one and only self-portrait painting, and it was also the very first one that was sold from the Lost In Translation exhibit.
Featured in: “Lost in Translation”, Rosenblut & Friedmann, Madrid
Sold
