A portrait in the style of Jane Austen by Sarah Birt

Hello!

I'd just like to introduce my offerings to the Staff Art Show this year. My name is Sarah Birt and I work in Visitor Services but I am also a jewellery designer so I have decided to combine my love of portraiture with the skills that I have learnt whilst working with silver over the last year or so.

I finally started on my most ambitious undertaking today; a portrait in silver and I thought I'd post a few photographs of the work in progress (it can also serve as a record in case it all goes horribly wrong!)

My aim is to pierce the drawn lines of the portrait by first drilling small holes into the silver sheet, which measures 5.3 by 6.8 centimetres and is 0.8mm thick. I will then using an extremely fine saw blade to 'sketch' out the design. This should give an interesting effect reminiscent of the sparsely sketched out portrait of Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra Austen found on display in room 18 at the National Portrait Gallery.








I have used myself as a model although it is an extremely stylized drawing so it bears only a passing resemblance. This is quite deliberate because the portrait of Jane Austen was deemed inaccurate by Austen's contemporaries. Jane's niece wrote 'there is a look which I recognise as hers, though the general resemblance is not strong, yet as it represents a pleasing countenance it is so far a truth.' I have used this quote to sanction my own artistic licence!

The silver sheet will have a highly polished, mirror-like surface, which will enable the viewer to see their own reflection and will hopefully encourage them to contemplate how they would create their own self-portrait. On the right, you can see the sketched out drawing that I have scratched into the protective plastic coating on the surface of the silver sheet. The next step will be to drill the holes and start sawing out the design. I am using the silver as a blank canvas so this will not be made into jewellery. At the moment, I am searching for a suitable antique picture frame to hold it but so far I haven't found the right one.



Well, that's all for now. I will post again when I have made some more progress! :-)