Collage to Painting with Artist Statement - Painting 2025 - Project 3

I gravitated towards building dreamlike spaces and fulfilling my desire to include a horse when approaching my collages. Amid personal contempt, I succeeded in building a warm and whimsical forest with contrasted monochrome horses running through the detailed landscape. 

I drew a grid on a canvas of 18x24" and a printed sheet of my collage to scale up accurately. When applying paint, I started with an imprimatur and an underpainting in burnt umber. Using wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques, I was able to blend and layer colors together with painterly marks. Throughout painting, I realized the importance of glazes and blocking in sections to speed up the process and achieve a cohesive color palette - especially when the details are the most favorable aspect of the painting.

The inclusion of a horse was vital for me when ideating merely because it brought me joy and reflected my current state of being. Life often feels like a racehorse that endlessly sprints, and when your legs give out, your efforts feel futile; but equine don't have to sprint everywhere all the time, they can simply exist. 

I emphasize the freedom and warmth of the dreamlike space against the stark and steely energy of the horses with the monochromatic palette contrasted to the warm landscape, which further enhances an "out of place" feeling for the equine.