In Stillness

            When I emerged from our bedroom on this cruise ship for the first time since setting sail the night before, I peered over the railing. Shocked and terrified by the endless body of water all around us with no land in sight, I felt sublime. This fear of falling into the endless body of water and how destructive it could be, but also how beautiful it looked with the way the sun hit the water and it’s reflections made me lose my breath. In an attempt to display this feeling, I focused on a self-portrait with emphasis on the facial expression and pops of color to try to display the whimsicality of the water that I felt and colors that pop in my head when I think back to that memory.

            Being influenced by artist Jenny Seville’s expressive, emotional artworks I looked to her for inspiration. By incorporating brush marks to create movement, I felt as this would give off the overwhelming, blown away feeling of this sublime moment. Lines created by expressive brush strokes creates this movement that brings you into the asymmetrical composition and travels through the face.The upward brush strokes helps to break up the movement from falling off of the surface and brings you back in. Texture is used on the face but to emphasize the focal point of the eyes and lips, they are more detailed and smooth to capture the awe. This in addition to maintaining brighter, vibrant colors in the face contrasts the shirt and darker purples to reinforce the focal point. To entice a push pull effect, I added light green on the cheek and a stroke below the face to have the eyes bounce back and forth over the lips. By using values, the face is given a sense of form and helps the nose come forward. This piece is lacking space which I hope to make another pass on to fix. As well, the collaged pieces do need to be adjust further. They are not doing much for the composition.