Americana
Rachel Z.
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My piece "Americana" depicts a shot of the simple daily life of old America, emboldened by the bright sunlight and saturated colors, and traditional horse and wagon. To me, it is like a warm Sunday morning downtown at the local farmers market, or it could be a stroll through the city in the hot afternoon. At one point where I was painting this, I went forty straight hours painting and only doing necessities. It was a cycle of wake up, eat, paint, eat, paint, eat, paint, sleep. Although my elbow hurt from leaning on the table, and my knees hurt from standing, I couldn't have felt better. Meticulously spending hours on each detail, not leaving out a single one, was all I wanted to do when painting this. The 100+ hours total I spent on this also reflected the great increase in watercolor skill I felt I acquired-- the first sixty hours was a slow blur of week after week of only painting a little bit each time, not knowing quite what to do with all the details. But during break, I spent entire days painting on end, and that flow state of mind was what finally helped watercolor click with me. I figured out how to squint and see the value of colors, then look at the underlying tones. I would first paint an overall underlying tone for each object or section of the painting, then paint the second layer of color above it, then as many layers of detail as needed. There were many mistakes made, and many times where I quickly used a smaller brush to wash the wrong tones off. Nevertheless, watercolor can be painted over, so as I learned, my work improved. Underneath the surface are countless whitewashed colors that I had scrubbed off previously. It took me a long time to be able to divide any aspect of an object into the layers of color and detail that was necessary to paint it with watercolor. I was extremely satisfied with the result, and I hope all will be able to enjoy my work.
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Every time I start painting it doesn't take long for me to be sucked in by the water, the paints, and the colors they create. Creative art is an outlet for me to relax, to leave the stress of my high school career and focus on a clear cut goal of completing a creative work.
