"This painting echoes Rembrandt's 'Self Portrait with Two Circles' painted when he was 59; it is the second self portrait I've made based on one that Rembrandt made at the same age at the time of painting.
My parka is on its last legs so I didn't mind painting in it (it was freezing in the studio when I started work in January!) and I've added several invented pin badge images to the fewer real badges worn on the coat as references to places and music, as well as Rembrandt's head from the Kenwood (Two Circles) self portrait. The more badges I painted, the more I felt that there should also be a nod to Peter Blake's Self Portrait with Badges - so I've included his head from that painting on another badge. The work was completed at the end of April 2025, a good deadline before I turned 60 in May."