Getting to know Chuck Close

Big self-Portrait, 1967
Acrylic on canvas .
273 x 212 cm

Chuck Close is an American painter that was born on July 5th, 1940 in Monroe, Washington.
When he was 14, he went to an art exhibition for an abstract painter named Jackson Pollack, who helped inspire Chuck to become a painter.
In his career, he had based his portraits from images that he took using a camera and then would paint them in a photo realistic/Minimalist/Abstract Expressionist style.
To help him get a photo realistic image, he would grid his work, the making of an artwork could take up to 2 years to complete, this could be because Close works by hand.
On December 7th, 1988, Close had suffered a heart attack of which left him paralyzed from the neck down. Months after the heart attack, he was able to move his wrists and briefly could walk.
He strapped drawing and painting utensils to his wrists and had an assistant draw up his grids.