Painting ll

Clara LeConte "Number 11"

8"x10", Acrylic Paint, 2025

A big part of my life has always been basketball. I've played for as long as I can remember. Playing high school basketball has, especially this year has been even more special. I wanted to show that in this painting. This picture was taken when we played Assumption this year and I had my best game of the season. This was one of my favorite pictures of me taken this year, so I decided to paint it. 

I used acrylic paint for this piece. Accept for painting the background, I used the same brush to paint the whole figure. Painting this involved a lot of shading and highlighting. I used many different shades and tints of all of the colors, giving it life and making it look more realistic.

Basketball is very important to me and I have always worked hard to get better at it. While playing in games is fun, basketball brings me more than just shooting and dribbling. It brings me a team of girls unlike any other. I've played with these girls since we were little, so it has been amazing to grow up with them and watch us all improve. While scoring points and hitting threes is fun, becoming so close with my team and knowing I always have their support has been the most rewarding part of this sport. High school was when I really had to step up and work for my spot, which made the sport all the more significant for me. Throughout my high school career, I've always worn number 11, so it means more to me than just a number on my back. 

I've never really painted a human figure before so it was a little challenging for me. The hardest part was shading and highlighting parts of my skin. That definitely took me the longest. However, I really took my time on everything and made sure it looked like the inspiration picture. 

This is a realistic style of art, as I was trying to recreate a photo of me. I think it is unique to me because because it represents a big part of me that has always been a big part of my life. I was also able to recreate the jersey that I played in at state and was always excited to put on. I love how I recreated my jersey and how the colors of it look exactly like our actual jerseys. I also really like the picture I chose to paint because it shows the number on my back and was from a game I played really well.   

Clara LeConte "Julian Dubuque Monument"

8"x10", Acrylic Paint, 2025

I got the idea for this scene when trying to think of a narrative painting. I thought of Dubuque, as it is a town that I grew up in , as a lot of my family lives there. One prominent place in Dubuque that my family and I always enjoy visiting is the Mines of Spain. The painting features the Julian Dubuque Monument and a view of the river from the monument. I wanted to capture the beauty of this spot and of Dubuque. 

To create this piece I used acrylic paint. I used mostly different shades of brown and green to create the bottom half of the painting. To create the forest, I used a still brush , dabbing on the paint to give it texture. 

Many different stories can be told through this artwork. When someone else looks at it, they see a beautiful landscape with two people looking out over the trees and the water. It may also persuade the viewer to visit this particular spot. However it means a little more to me. Dubuque has always seemed like home to me. The Mines of Spain is such a peaceful and calm place to just take a drive through or visit the monument. It almost makes me feel like a kid again, as this was a place we used to visit often, but I haven't been to the monument in a while. So for me, the painting brings back feelings of childhood and gives me a sense of home, reminding me of a place and city I enjoy to visit and would maybe live someday. 

I would say the most difficult part for me was creating the sky. I wanted to make it colorful but also realistic for an evening when the sun is going down. I kind of started over on it, painting over the old colors to create a new sky, which I think made the painting look much better. If I were to change anything, I would probably spend more time on the sky to get it just right and maybe add more detail to the forest. 

I would call this painting a mix of realism and abstract art. It's depicting a picture and place in a realistic way, but there's also a bit of abstractness in the forest, as it isn't exactly detailed and accurate. It's unique to me because it uses this mixture of styles and paints a scene of a place that is special to me. I really like the monument and how it stands out, but how the natural beauty around it is also shown.