Painting I

Soren Maricle "Simple Things"

16x20, Acrylic on Canvas, 2022

(IDEA) My first plan was to make a basic painting of some of my favorite things, flowers and books, using my favorite colors. Originally, my idea was to only add small and basic details because it was my first painting, but I ended up spending more time on the details than I had planned. In my room, there is a vase of LEGO flowers sitting on top of my bookshelf, so I sort of combined the two in one painting.

(PROCESS) First, I started with the background color which I think was pretty difficult to mix. I knew I wanted to do the stack of books afterward and I spent a lot of time mixing the right colors for the shadowing. Next was the jar and flowers, which took me the most amount of time. I wasn’t planning on adding so much detail to the flowers but I thought they would turn out better that way. I used a lot of blending which took some patience on my part because it didn’t always turn out how I liked it.

(SYMBOLISM & ICONOGRAPHY) Although the details in the painting aren’t super simple, the painting shows simplicity. Flowers and books are two simple things in life that people can enjoy.

(ARTISTIC GROWTH) The most difficult part for me was creating the details on the flowers. It was hard to blend the colors in the right way so they didn’t totally mix together, especially the purple and light green colors. I made sure that I took my time and didn’t rush it. If I could change something about my painting, I would’ve spent more time on the table under the books, but I felt I was running out of time to finish it.

(VISUAL VOICE) I think the style of art is pretty realistic. One thing that may make it unique to my own style is the blending. I want to use that technique in most of my paintings this semester. I love the overall outcome of the painting, especially the colors I chose to use.

Soren Maricle "Frisco, Colorado"

10x8, Acrylic on Canvas, 2022

(IDEA) I knew I wanted to do my landscape painting of a picture that I had taken on vacation. I was debating between a beach picture and one of the mountains, so my final decision was the photo of the mountains and lake because I knew I would be able to add more detail to it.

(PROCESS) I started off with the sky and clouds. I mainly just wanted to get that part out of the way because it would be difficult to paint the clouds around the mountains. I did the mountains next and made sure to mix the right colors, as the shade gets lighter as the mountains move back. I finished with the lake, grass, and trees, as well as the reflection of those trees and sunset in the water. I used two different paintbrushes throughout the whole painting because I used a lot of solid colors in big areas.

(SYMBOLISM & ICONOGRAPHY) The painting is based on a picture I took in Frisco, Colorado, which happens to be one of my favorite places. I remember when I took the photo I felt really happy and calm, which I think the audience could feel too when looking at the painting.

(ARTISTIC GROWTH) Painting the clouds and the reflection of the sunset in the water were the most difficult parts of this painting. When painting the clouds, I had to paint, paint over it, and then paint over that. It took me a while to get it to look how I wanted, so it basically was a lot of trial and error. It was difficult to do the sunset reflection in the water because I didn’t even know where I should’ve placed it. It also took a lot of trial and error and painting over my mistakes. If I could change one thing in my painting it would be the clouds. It didn’t turn out as realistic as I thought it would, but it still gives an interesting touch to the painting.

(VISUAL VOICE) I think, for the most part, the painting is pretty realistic except for the clouds. Even though that wasn’t the goal, they sort of remind me of “The Starry Night” by Van Gough because of the different colors and blending I used in them. I used a lot of the same blending that I used in my still life/object painting, especially in the sky and water. One part that I really love is the trees and their reflection of them in the lake.

Soren Maricle "Lilacs"

9x12, Watercolor and Acrylic on Canvas Paper, 2022

(IDEA) For my animal painting, I knew I wanted to paint some sort of butterfly but I have previous experience drawing/painting them. I also wanted to use light, pastel-ish colors, so lilacs were a good choice to paint.

(PROCESS) I had no idea how to start, but I had to use watercolor in some way so it was a multi-media painting. The first thing I did was the green/purple outline on the outside of the paper. I didn’t like the way it looked until I added the green background with acrylic paint. I painted the lilacs next and spent time adding shadows to them, the same for the leaves. I did the butterfly last and used different shades of blue for the wings.

(SYMBOLISM & ICONOGRAPHY) Overall, the painting is soft. Going into it, the painting didn’t have much meaning to me, but my main goal was to make it visually relaxing to look at.

(ARTISTIC GROWTH) Deciding on the background was most difficult for me. I didn’t really know how I wanted to start it. The best way to get over the difficulty was to just paint, not really knowing where I was going with it. I knew that if I didn’t like it, I could just start over. If I could change one thing, I would add more detail to the vines and leaves, instead of leaving them one solid color.

(VISUAL VOICE) I think the painting is pretty realistic. The background and watercolor outline made it unique to me and stand out. My favorite part of the painting is the butterfly because of the shades of blue and small details I added to the wings.

Soren Maricle - Baseline Painting

9x12, Watercolor on Paper, 2022