Bale Capstone Project

"Coming Up for Air"

For this piece I chose the entry point of past/present. In this work of mine I wanted to portray coming up for air as emerging and letting go of the past and choosing to live in the present. I chose the setting of the middle of the ocean to represent that at times we are stuck out at see not sure where life it going. The further down into the darker water I used to represent deep into the past. I purposefully made the sky a much lighter shade of blue but also empty to represent finding peace with yourself once you decide to let go of the past and live in the present. The emptiness of the sky was used to bring mystery. By letting go of the past their is mystery of what is to come however the light peaceful colors were meaningfully used to show that is doesn't have to be scary. The most important part of this piece is the women swimming up and reaching for the surface in the painting. I struggled to paint her to make her look submerged so instead I used a different color for the hand sticking out of the water. I chose to keep most of her body submerged to show though she is attempting to let go of the past, much of herself is still stuck. 

This piece tested my skills greatly as I chose to paint a non-abstract scene. To create the piece I first mixed together many shades of blue. In total I created about twelve different shades for the painting. On the 26" x 30" canvas board using a very light blue I did an underpainting. I found that the paint was two thick an heavy so I went back in with matte medium to thin it out. Then I created a point on the board to differentiate the water and sky adding darker colors into the water. After painting a rough version of the sea and sky I sketched out a simple figure in the water. This was the hardest part of the piece. I must have painted over the figure about 50 times in the process of painting this work. I did not get much from my sketch of the figure so I chose to freehand it which I often do in my pieces. On the figure I used darker acrylic colors and matte medium to experiment with shadows, while at another point in the process the figure was completely blue. I made the decision to keep her a more natural skin color instead of an underwater blue hue to keep emphasis on the figure. I felt that when the figure was blue it blended in with the water loosing it position at the center of the piece. While continuing to go back to the figure I also experimented with gradients in the water. To do so I used a large amount of matte medium. Many layers of doing so allowed me to have an ocean like under water scene. It is obvious that blue was a large part of this piece, however the use of white in the painting process is what really brought things together. I used a lot of white in the sky to represent day time and light from the sun, and also white in the water to show the reflections of light in the water. Before making final touches on the figure, using a palette knife, white acrylic, a few shades of blue acrylic, and purple acrylic I scraped on the sky. I chose to you a palette knife over a brush to keep things simple. I did not want to put much into the sky or it would take away from the rest of the piece. My final touch to create the piece was adding the sun to show where the reflections and light in the water were coming from. I used a very light yellow with white mixed in and lots of matte medium to dull out the sun. Many choices I made on this piece were done using observation of actions I had already taken and making an effort to improve on them. I would probably and may still go back in to make edits on the figure.