ERIN

The painting in front of you is made using acrylic paint and oil pens on a wooden plaque, measuring 30cm wide, 22.5cm high and 1.5cm deep. The edges of the plaque are bevelled and painted black. 

The painting is abstract, made up of many colourful layers, and across the middle is a band of white with cursive black letters spelling out the phrase “embrace new opportunities”. 

The main colours in this painting are blush pink, which covers the bottom of the plaque, navy blue which is covering the top left and a fresh lime green taking the top right. The next layer shows yellow squares going from just below the midway point on the edges, up to the centre at the top, in a triangular shape that looks like steps going up and back down. There are black squares and brush strokes on top of this layer, and then the remainder of the background is made up of loops of white and orange, blobs of yellow with orange blobs on top and then circles and splashes of colours covering the remainder of the plaque. The white banner featuring the lettering is crisp and clean in contrast, allowing the words to really stand out. 

Keep listening to hear more about the painting in front of you. 

​

This piece of artwork was created with Erin, a young female student. 

Her favourite place is a hill top near her university campus at Treforest. 

Her words of wisdom are: "Embrace new opportunities".

Erin: "I took GCSE art and that was the last time I’ve ever drawn, painted, done anything. So it’s been a while. It kind of put me off doing it because I was forced to paint. So I'd rather do it in my own time so I took a break, but this break has been longer than I was anticipating.

So a few weeks ago, I went to like, you know by the Uni? There’s a nice hill, and me and my friend had like Lambrini while watching the sun set. We were both bored in the house, so we were like, shall we just go, grab a picnic blanket. It was nice. The sunset wasn’t as good as we were expecting - we saw one and that’s all that matters."

​

I was really taken by her sense of self, her confidence to lead and to seize control of her journey in life. She may not have an end destination in sight just yet, but she knows she’s headed in the right direction.

I’ve used her favourite colours of blush pink, navy and yellow as some of the main colours in this painting. Interestingly I would have chosen blue and yellow for her piece based on our conversation and the colour language I’ve created for these artworks - I’ve looked into cultural interpretations of colour and created a chart for myself that links colours to different meanings. I have chosen blue to confidence and yellow to represent creativity. 

I added into this a fresh green, which symbolises her growth as she earns her degree. 

​

As well as her favourite colours I used orange to represent Erin’s strong friendships, and plenty of black to show her intrinsic power. 

As Erin describes it, it’s as if the bright colours are emerging from the dark. Like new opportunities are being grasped!