Figure Painting

Self-Portrait

Acrylics on paper

18"x24"

My objective in this self-portrait was to convey different emotions through one single, static gaze. While doing research, I looked at some of Bill Viola's work and decided I did not want my emotions to be evident or exaggerated in my self-portrait; however I did want my painting to be understood as a person's face as quickly as possible. I found the paintings of Antonio Capel and Peg Trezevant to be the most striking because of the amount of detail that is used to describe the subjects. Looking at these paintings motivated me to make my self-portrait as close as possible to what I look like physically.

In the process of making this painting, I was able to experience using different colors to achieve the illusion of skin. My goal was to create a contrast between light and dark and also pay attention to the different colors found in a person's face that we don't usually notice. I used the techniques of under-painting and glazing in tones of red and green to achieve the different values and temperature changes. In this self-portrait I am exploring my personal feelings, my difficulty to express emotions, my naïveté, my fear of pain and judgment, and my feelings of loneliness and rejection. My gaze was intended to express my interior feelings but also my effort and perhaps inability to understand the exterior world that is in front of me. I think it is interesting to look at the world like we are strangers, without seeing anything as normal or taking anything for granted. In my opinion, this is when we discover amazing things.

Space Painting

Painting on a big canvas was challenging for me. I got frustrated at first but finally pulled it off. I think the result is pretty nice. I tried to get out of my comfort zone and paint something from imagination. I'm pretty happy with the bat girl... but I still wonder how mermaids would have looked. Anyways, the painting isn't cliche at least.

Stuff Painting

I liked the concept of materialism in my stuff painting. I had fun painting it and I think it came out pretty well. The only thing I wasn't happy about was the size, I think it was too small to be put in a gallery. If it was bigger, it would have been more noticeable.

Fruit Painting

I am really happy to see how this came out. It was very interesting to paint in the dark and then take the painting out and see how different it looks. I would never have painted anything this bright if I could actually see what I was painting because I have a tendency to try to use the exact colors of the still life that I'm looking at and to make the objects look very realistic. I like that the fruit looks too perfect almost like it's fake. This painting could even have a meaning, it could be criticizing the amount of fertilizers and genes that are used on fruit when it's growing so that it looks extremely bright and perfect. But in reality the fruit ends up looking fake, plasticky and not tasting very good.

First painting

I didn't really enjoy painting toilet paper and wasn't happy with the result. I cropped the painting a little, I think that this composition works better because there isn't a lot of empty space and the still life isn't right in the middle.