What a Fool Believes (Self Portrait)
Peter Hudson
- Sitter: Self Portrait
- Medium: Oil on Board
- Dimensions: 68cm x 124cm
- Representation: Mitchell Fine Art
- Categories: Performing arts and music industry
About the artwork
This self-portrait contains no face. In its place, Peter Hudson has painted two constants that have shaped his life since the age of ten: a 20-inch drum and Mt Coonowrin, rising from the Sunshine Coast hinterland. These are not symbols or substitutes, Hudson insists, but the truest representation of who he is. For over four decades he has played drums in live bands across Australia. The mountain has been a constant on the horizon of his life and work. Together they are, as he describes them, “lifelong counterparts, witnesses and anchors.”
The portrait resists the expectation of likeness and instead asks a more interesting question: what if a portrait told you who someone truly is, rather than what they look like? This powerful painting challenges what we assume a portrait should be. An invitation to consider what portraiture truly means.
About the artist
Peter Hudson is a Sunshine Coast based artist represented by Mitchell Fine Art, whose evocative landscapes and portraits connect land, culture and spirituality. A graduate of Queensland College of Art and Design, his work is held in the National Portrait Gallery, the National Maritime Museum and the Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory. He has exhibited widely.
