Gouache Leaf Study

Gouache on Watercolor Paper,
Study, 2009

This is a small painting of the elephant ear plant. I did this yesterday for my Painting Process class. This was the first time that I ever made a painting using the medium gouache. I secretly have a fear of painting with different mediums other than oil because that's what I know best, and that's what I'm good at doing. After finishing this painting I fell in love with gouache, and I feel the need to use it more. I want to make more small paintings of plants for my thesis because I'm using a lot of nature landscapes in my series. I like gouache because I can blend my colors like with oil paint. I'm really surprised about pulling this painting off. My teacher liked it, and so do I.

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1st Painting of Thesis

Oil on Canvas, 2009

This is the first painting for my senior thesis. It's about love and pain. My paintings for this series aren't about any one particular guy. I say this because I get asked that a lot, but this series is on just how loving someone can make anyone feel.

I've decided to let this series consist mainly of self portraits. I want to express myself in this series as a sort of spiritual journey; these paintings will be my journal entries.

Aesthetically, I've tried a lot of new techniques and discovered more about myself as a painter. I created a lot of flat vs. 3D areas, smooth vs. textured, and I even left some areas of the painting unfinished where the under painting is showing through. I want to continue these techniques further in my body of work.

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Scriptual Inspiration

A lot of times, especially for this series, I have found many inspirations from the "Holy Bible". These ideas of hope, virtue, love, nature, symbols, and parables are spoken of a lot in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. I like to portray the relevance of the Word in my paintings although others may not see that. This is what my paintings mean to me.

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