<p><b>''Painfully honest on what it means to be a woman who puts art first, no matter what'' Olivia Laing</b><br><b><i><br>I''m not a portrait painter. If I''m anything, I have always been an autobiographer.</i></b><br><br>In <i>Self-Portrait</i>, Celia Paul reveals a life truly lived through art. She moves effortlessly through time, in words and images, from her arrival at the Slade School of Fine Art at sixteen, through a profound and intense affair with the older and better-known artist Lucian Freud, to the practices of her present-day studio. This intimate memoir is, at its heart, about a young woman navigating the path to artistic freedom, with all the sacrifices and complications that entails.<br><br><b>''Powerful'' Zadie Smith</b><br><b>''Engrossing'' <i>Vogue</i></b><br><b>''Captivating... Mesmerising'' <i>New York Times</i><br></b><br><b>**Shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize **</b></p>