Miami Lights

18' by 24" Inches

This was one of my first oil paintings and I felt torn between the style I wanted to portray. I originally completed this piece to be smooth and realistic, yet I was never fully satisfied by the colors and the feel of the painting. After many attempts to make the skin look perfect, I "gave up" and started to block and smudge the colors to get rid of the flat planes of blurred color that bored my mind. I liked what I was seeing, so I kept making more marks. I created a piece that was vibrant with a flow, one that felt just right. This piece is very important to me because it showed me how to portray my voice in a way I never expected. I always strayed towards realistic looking art, however, after the completion of this piece my goal was to learn and understand more about abstract art and how to convey my emotions into art. This piece kick started my want to experiment with different tools and paint on larger canvases.