Laith McGregor
365 days 2019–20
oil and fibre-tipped pen on canvas
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney

Laith McGregor
365 days 2019–20
oil and fibre-tipped pen on canvas
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney


Laith McGregor


Laith McGregor
Australian, born 1977; lives and works in Byron Bay and Bali, Indonesia

365 days 2019–20
oil and fibre-tipped pen on canvas
Courtesy of the artist and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney

Artist statement:

This painting began as a project: every day for a year, I would record a self-portrait in oil onto the canvas. My intention was to depict my thoughts, feelings and emotions in a daily ritual, a diary of sorts. When I began the painting at the end of 2019, little did I realise what a historic blowout 2020 would turn out to be, and an indiscriminate and chaotic collection of faces began to illustrate my mindset.


Quick painterly depictions, finely detailed representations from life, illusionary impressions and momentary studies represented my year of relative isolation in my regional NSW studio. I also began to record my emotional state each day on the verso of the canvas. Upon conclusion of the 365 days, I realised I had not only depicted moments of my own frustrations, anxieties and discontentment, but I had also evoked a collective experience of the human condition: a portrait of my circumstance within a motley crew of humanity.