This painting is inspired by a woman who had suffered a stroke. I chose to paint the face in a style that would represent the isolation and loneliness she experienced during her gradual recovery. Using fragmented brush strokes and a monochrome palate I tried to convey the distance Jennifer felt both from her former self and from society.

I was inspired by the artist Giacometti and tried to adopt a similar style to the method he used when developing his famous, abstract stick-men sculptures. I selected linear brush strokes to produce a hazy, un-defined, face in order to convey Jennifer’s feelings of detachment and to imply her shifted sense of identity. I also chose to paint a wide-eyed, startled, blank expression, to represent her lack of control and vulnerability.