My aunt Jan passed away last winter, and ever since this year started, I have planned on doing a piece to honor her memory and try my best to show her love and warmth through the artwork. As soon as I heard that we were doing a painting project, I knew I wanted Jan to be the subject of my painting. I went through many pictures trying to choose one that best represented her and when I saw this picture in my camera roll I knew it was the one. Jan struggled with cancer for many years before she passed away from it. Throughout her battle, she never stopped showing her love for her family, especially her nieces, nephews, great-nephews, and niece. This picture perfectly represents this as it shows her on a hike with her husband Roger, and her great-nephew Owen. Although she rarely showed it, even towards the end, we all knew she was in pain, but she still sacrificed to let us know we were loved by her and she cared. The fall colors in this picture show the warmth she brought to everyone she met, and her love of nature and God’s creation. I chose this picture to challenge myself to do the best I possibly can because for this project I wasn’t doing it for myself, I was doing it for my family, and most importantly, I was doing it for Jan.
The second step of every project is to sketch out your painting with the grid method. So I started with that feeling very excited to make this project. However, then it was time to start putting the layers of paint down. I started by looking at the big “shapes” of color and basically just putting splotches down to cover up the brown base color of the matte board. I was very skeptical at this point and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to accomplish what I wanted to with this project. However, I pushed through and continued painting many layers for about three weeks.
Then came the time to finally start adding detail. This gave me much more confidence and I believed that I could do it. I started from the back doing the trees, to the front with the people, and foreground. I added a lot of different brushstrokes to add dimension and different ranges of color to make it visually appealing. I used different varieties of green, yellow, brown, and even white for the trees in the background. Then I moved down to the grass and trail and used the same greens, yellows, browns, and white showing the different shadows and highlights of that as well. Then I used darker browns, greys, black, and white for the foreground and all of those details. Then it was finally time to start on the people, the part I was most excited about. I started with their clothes using a variety of different colors like blue, blue-green, green, black, white, orange, brown, and even a little pink. Then I moved to their faces using different shades of pink, brown, and orange, as well as white and black for the little details like her glasses. Besides the meaning behind this painting, I think the variety of colors and brushstrokes are my favorite parts, as I’ve never really done anything like this before.
Overall, I think this is my favorite art project I’ve ever done. Knowing that I’m doing this painting for a purpose and that pushing me to do my best is something that I’ve never fully experienced until this one. Playing around with different colors and brush movements, yet still using realistic colors has made this project extremely enjoyable. And now finally being able to look at an art project of mine and be proud of it is very fulfilling as I’ve been burnt out from art for a while. This project has been an emotional rollercoaster for many reasons, but I’m very happy that I’m able to look at it now and feel accomplished and pleased knowing I put my best effort into it.
