The First 3 Paintings

When beginning this project, the first three people that came to my mind to create paintings of and for were my mom, my sister, and my best friend, Aidan. Many of these paintings started around the same time in April and ended up overlapping and ending around the same time in May.

Cliffs of Moher, May 5, 2023

Acrylic Paint

The first painting was for my best friend, who often talks about visiting the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. I wanted to focus on taking my time throughout the creation of this painting, as well as learning how to better use acrylic in my work. Blending the paints together, I quickly became fascinated with the concept that as something gets further from the "camera" of the picture, the more desaturated that something gets. The cliffs above show this concept, as I had to keep lightening the hue and adding in some blue as the cliffs went into the distance.

Childhood Memories, May 9, 2023

Acrylic Paint, Paint Pens

The above painting was for my younger sister, who is now a sophomore in college. I had a good idea of how I wanted this painting to look from the beginning, as I wanted it to be a collage of many of the memories that we shared when we were younger. The background of the painting and the purple phantom are from some computer games that we used to play dating back to when we were in kindergarten, the stuffed bear holds good memories from myself, my brother, and my sister all hanging out together, and the brown cube is from a video game that we all played when we were younger, and still play when we go home for holidays. This painting was fun, spontaneous, and a great mix of greatest childhood memories with my sister. I used a new media, paint pens, and learned how to use them in combination with acrylic paint.

Italian Kitchen, May 12, 2023

Acrylic Paint

The third painting that I worked on was for my mom. Similar to my sister's painting, this one has many memories tied into it. My mom visited Rome once a few years ago and has gone back many times before, but the terrace outside of the convent that she stayed at sticks out in my mind. My mom also loves to cook and made meals for me all throughout my childhood. As such, I wanted to gift my mom with an Italian kitchen. I focused mainly on perspective, lighting, and color for this project.