This large self-portrait captures the artist at work in her studio. As in many of her studio portraits, the room is cluttered with painting materials and there is a recurrent motif of the red beret which she wears while painting. Red self-portrait won first prize in the 1993 Hunting/Observer Art Competition. Shani Rhys-James was born in Australia to Welsh parents in 1953. After attending Loughborough College of Art and St Martins College of Art in London, she moved to Wales in 1984. Taught by Gillian Ayres, amongst others, at St Martins, she absorbed the abstract qualities of paint into her figurative style. She enjoys paint for its texture, colour and energy. In 2003 she won the Jerwood Prize for painting.