What I Wanted, What I Am
This piece began with a filtered photo, a version of myself, touched up, softened, almost unrecognisable. I drew that version first: the woman I thought I should be. The one I believed might be more worthy of being seen.
But as the painting evolved, so did my honesty.
Layer by layer, I let that idealised image fade.
Through bursts of colour, texture, and raw instinct, I allowed something real to emerge. I painted in the grey strands that actually live on my head. I interrupted the illusion with truth, messy, vulnerable, and unfiltered.
This artwork became the meeting point of two identities:
What I wanted. What I am.
It’s about the quiet tension between striving and accepting.
Between the version we chase and the one we’ve already become.
And in that space, imperfect and unfinished, I found a kind of beauty I wasn’t looking for, but deeply needed to see.
Original Artwork - What I Wanted, What I Am (Thin Edge - 61cm x 92cm)
ARTIST: Kirsty Sutton
COLLECTION: Self-portrait
DATE OF COMPLETION: September, 2025
SIZE; 60.96cm x 91.44cm
MEDIUM: Mixed media on canvas
FRAME: Unframmed
EDITION: Original / One of One