Pamela Craven Davies

For my MA Creative Practice Essay at the end of Year 1 I have been re-reading my Art History through the eyes of women artists. Throughout my art education from O Levels, A levels, and Degree I have not consistently read about female artists throughout history. So I thought it was about time. Some of the books I have just read have only just been published so I was quite impressed with the level of research I could do without reading dated books. Great Women Artists by Phaidon published 2019, The Pre-Raphaelite Sisters by Jan Marsh, The National Portrait Gallery London 2019, and Fighting for Visibility by Nationalgalerie Berlin 2019. This reading has taken me on a great adventure into the past and I have loved every minute of it, finding out about these Women Artists, their lives and their work. It has taken me on a journey of self discovery too. My thoughts and feelings about these Women has changed the way in which I look at art. Researching how these women were educated and what drove and inspired them to become artists. Self Portraits have been a prominent part of many of their artworks which and forced me to face my own ideas about Self-Portraits. From my perspective I do not see my face unless I look in the mirror, and then my expression changes immediately, so how do I know what I really look like. I have to question myself, whether this is the right thing to do, I do feel uncomfortable drawing myself, but its an idea I have had for a long time, my view of myself and what is going on around me, and how that impacts on myself. This is the only drawing I could get to download, for some reason I seam to have difficulties again with technology.