A Self Portrait of An Artist on Narrow Street 2019

Jammie Holmes’ self-portrait on narrow street, painted with loose brushwork and a muted palette, feels like a memory surfacing. I imagine Holmes starting with thin washes of color, building up the figure and the scene, scraping back, layering, searching for the right balance between representation and abstraction. Look at the way the paint is dragged across the surface, creating a kind of hazy atmosphere around him. You can almost feel the sun beating down on that narrow street. I wonder if he was thinking about Alice Neel or Philip Guston? I see a family resemblance in that direct gaze and the slightly awkward pose. That lone chair is also really intriguing. It’s like a silent witness, or maybe a stand-in for the viewer. Ultimately, this painting speaks to the power of self-representation and the ways in which artists are constantly engaging in a visual conversation, riffing off each other’s ideas and forging their own unique paths.