I frequently visit one of my friend’s homes for dinner. They have a four-person dining table in their dining area next to the kitchen. When sitting at the table, the kitchen is behind my back and I’m facing straight ahead towards a white wall. A wall in need of life. They have already decorated some areas with pleasant house plants but another pop of color was a must.
Inspiration for this piece was drawn from multiple different places. I knew I wanted the painting to primarily feature green and blue but that’s all I was starting with. I considered an abstract leaf pattern to complement the plants already in the home, a visually busy pattern in a monochromatic palette, and even a set of random geometric shapes. I don’t do well with random shapes.
One day when I was visiting the North Carolina Art Museum, I came across the Study for Homage to the Square by Josef Albers. The initial simplicity of this series piqued my interest but after further research I found that the collection is meant to challenge the viewers visual perception. I didn’t want the viewer to be challenged by my creation though, I wanted to “provide an answer” - so to speak. I truly wanted to create a harmonious piece that was both interesting to experience and pleasant to be around. Similarly to a nice house plant, but with a little extra pizazz!

Since my goal was to create a calm energy for this piece, I decided that any shapes I was going to use were to have a rounded edge. The main featured colors would still be green and blue but there would also be little pops of color to add a sense of peaceful enjoyment; like when you eat fresh cut fruit on a hot summer day as an adult instead of a popsicle. (You can watch me laugh about this description in my Youtube video, linked at the top of the page! Time 3:04).
I opened Procreate and got to sketching! Initially I considered drawing arches to emulate a door opening up to a portal but I felt that focused too much on a specific item than a vibe. I instead created a design that featured varying arcs. I like that this design allows for open interpretation of what a “complete” piece may look like if all of the shapes were to be completed. I typically add either a white or black outline to most of my paintings but since this one was going to be painted on a much larger scale than my other pieces, I decided to add additional colors which I’ll go into more detail on later.
This was my first 30x40 canvas! I got it from Michaels and was SO excited to work on a piece this large!! It came with its own challenges for sure but I overcame just about every single one of them.
My first challenge was sketching the half circles. I used a “perfection tool” (that’s just what I call digital help) in Procreate to get the half circles to the exact curves I wanted and as you may imagine, that was much more difficult to do freehanded. I considered using a ruler as a guide but I didn’t like the way that felt. Instead, I decided to cut up an old calendar into the shape I needed and use it as a stencil! This worked fabulously and I used this trick for the circle at the bottom of the painting as well.
The second challenge was sketching the larger arcs. Since I used a perfection tool in Procreate for these as well and I didn’t conveniently have thirty inch paper lying around, I needed to think of something else. My first instinct was to simply eyeball it but after erasing the same line for the fifth time, I put on my creative thinking cap (lol). “What can I use that can create an arc that’s long enough to fit the width of the canvas yet flexible enough for me to move around?”... a piece of thread! I rotated the canvas depending on the direction of the arc. I taped the string to the higher starting point on one side then draped it over to the other in a way that I was happy with. I used this trick for the three curves in the middle of the canvas.
The painting process itself was pretty simple other than being time consuming due to the size of the piece. Since I wanted to save time, I invested in a heavy body acrylic Liquidtex paint so that I would need to do less layers. I did end up mixing the Liquidtex with a few of my Apple Barrel acrylic paints because I needed to adjust the color.
When painting with a gold shimmer, I also prime the area with a mustard or other dark yellow so that the gold can pop after a coat or two. When I’ve tried to go in with only the gold shimmer, I’ve had to paint just about six coats sometimes.
Once the paint had dried, I broke out my Posca markers to work on the outlines. This is where I go into detail about the additional colors I added! For a little element of surprise, I thought a few nice lines of contrast would do the trick! To compliment the beige I added a thin bright orange line. To complement the half circle, I added two more gold elements by painting a thin line that bordered both of the light green areas. I started with the gold Posca markers then layered the medium with paint. Since I added the bright orange to pair with the light beige, I found it only right to add a light blue to pair with the blue and dark green. The orange and blue lines were solely created with Posca markers - no additional paint needed! Once the colorful outlines were complete, I bordered them with a thin line of black to match what would be the color of the canvas border.
Once the painting was complete with all of its details, I added the gloss coat. I did about two or three coats of Gamvar Gloss Varnish and then painted the borders of the canvas black.
Then it was finished. All that was left was the name. I chose Altruism because the word itself defines the practice of selflessness and implies a strong consideration for others. I created this piece because I wanted to create something that was both interesting to experience and pleasant to be around. How I feel about the essence of my painting is similar to how I feel about a nice house plant. It’s not only pretty to look at and pleasant to be around, but it's a reminder that it’s okay to take a moment to slow down. Take a moment to breathe and feel at peace even if the world is moving quickly around you and you’re not sure what’s next.
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