Self-Portrait with a Model 1910

This is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Self-Portrait with a Model, made with oil on canvas. Look at the way Kirchner is standing there, so boldly, in his striped robe. Can you see how the red and purple clash? It's like he's daring us to look, pushing the boundaries of colour and form. I can only imagine the energy in the studio as he painted this, the quick, confident strokes capturing a moment of intense creativity. What must it have been like to be Kirchner, wrestling with the canvas, trying to capture the essence of himself and his muse? His work reminds me a little of my own process, actually. I think that, as painters, we're all in conversation with each other, across time and space. And that's what makes art so exciting, the ongoing exchange of ideas, the way one artist can inspire another to see the world in a new way.