I Love my Heart, I Love Myself II by Hugh Gilmour (b. 1965) is a reflective piece that depicts a human body, with notions from anatomy drawing as a bicoloured outline of a heart is placed in the chest, with lines of red forming the bloodstream into the arms and towards the head. The face of the figure is broken into three triangular sections, two are pale pink in colour and the bottom half of the face is red. The bottom half of the body follows this anatomy drawing motif as the bones of the pelvis are captured in realistic detail, with label marks of capital and lowercase letters around it, and then one leg shows the loose lines depicting different muscles with numbers written on them and the other leg has two cylindrical shapes to depict the upper and lower parts. Each detail has watercolours making up the colours to denote their differences. The bone structure of the splayed palm is also visible within the human figure. This figure is set against three triangular sections of background, similar to the face. One part is a solid, rich red in colour, the top right part is the flesh-coloured pink of the human figure, and the final area behind the upper left side of the figure is grey watercolour overlaid with thick strokes of black colour and brown acrylic or oil paint above the head, almost creating a halo. 

Other pieces of Hugh Gilmour reflect on the human body, often with a common motif of separating some part of the painting or figure into three sections, usually to depict some level of emotional distress in the work. The disembodiment of the human form, present here in the anatomical ways the body is broken up and the breaking up of the face into three sections, is also a common motif in the work to further add to the emotions Gilmour is trying to depict, such as anger, illness or humiliation. It is possible the arcing strokes of paint above the head are reflecting Gilmour's psychological turmoil, while the attention paid to anatomy and the pumping of blood from the heart with the title of the piece is showing the juxtaposition of the power of the body in keeping one alive. 

Hugh Gilmour, born 1965

Born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Gilmour studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, then for a Masters degree at the Royal College of Art, London. He lives and works in London. Gilmour works in painting, sculpture and installation.