Sustained Investigation #8

Sustained Investigation #8: “Sankta Lucia”

Watercolour

10” x 15”

My painting shows the Swedish traditional scene of Sankta Lucia. The Sankta Lucia tradition is held on the darkest night every year, December 13th. The swedes celebrated her bringing of the light during this dark time. She comes bearing candles and Lussekater to the frigid north. This tradition has always been important and celebrated by my family so I decided to show it through my painting.

I completed this piece using Watercolours on Watercolour Paper.

This semester I decided to focus on the mediums I’m more familiar with to work on them and develop my skills so I chose to use watercolour. I started with the background, before realising I should work from the lighter values first. It was a challenge to work with shadows on the face for the first time but I’d like to work on this further. To improve upon pieces in the future I’ll make sure to work light to dark when working with watercolours and try to darken values as I tend to go light. I’d also like to work on changing up the perspective.