The LUUvre

Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 9"x12"
Paper: Strathmore Gemini Series 140 lbs. Cold Press (594-2)

I very much enjoyed working on this piece. It was such an enjoyable way to usher in the new season!

While painting this I started thinking about all the fantasy paintings that inspire me, the mystery, magic, and majesty that surround the characters and creatures in the work of artists like Amy Brown, Stephanie Pui-mun Law, and Michelle-lee Phelan. But at the same time I thought of all the classical paintings that inspire me just as much, sometimes depicting christian scenes, by artists like Botticelli, Barocci, and Titian, with the angels with halos and baby Jesus and all that.

I think a lot of people, on any side, probably perceive faiths such Wicca and Paganism, and Christianity to be incompatible with each other, but I feel like that's such a black and white way of looking at things. Ah, I could go on a whole tirade, but I'll just get to the point.

I love the reverence and gorgeous life-like renderings of the masters, how angels are really brought to more than life, to really be holy. I love the playfulness, imagination, and fantastical renderings of modern day fantasy art, and it really incites this idea that magic is real and that you can find it all around you.

I think that together, these elements can exist in harmony and create something to ignite and awaken the spirit like never before. It's very much becoming my goal to achieve this with my art.