Transcript of the audio resource
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 “kindness is cool”.
The main colours in this painting are a pale pinky lilac and navy, with lilac taking up the top half and navy the bottom. There are large black marks - like soft, rounded V shapes - with white and black dots on them, one coming out of the top of the white banner across the middle, and a slightly smaller one coming out below it. They look organic, like something growing out from the plaque.
There are royal blue loops of paint, swirly shining silver lines and layers of bright vibrant pink and fresh greens peeping out from behind the white banner, and over the top of these is an explosion of colour, like confetti in paint. There are little square blobs at all angles cascading across the plaque - in soft pinks, lilac, purple, peach, green, white and black. Some are falling on top of each other, as if floating through the air. 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 painting was made with Laura. Her favourite place is the dentist near the old bridge. Her words of wisdom are: Kindness is cool.
Laura: "The reason that I love the dentist so much is because of the braces that I had. Because I really, really disliked my smile and it would get in the way of like... I wouldn't like taking pictures with me in. I'd be like 'Your smile is weird, why do your teeth do that?' and now I just feel much more confident. That's what that area of Ponty will always remind me of is feeling, you know, like the dentist was somewhere where I just had to go to keep my teeth healthy and then it became this thing where I came out of my shell a little more and yeah"
When Laura told me her favourite place I was taken aback… there aren’t many people who would choose the dentist as their favourite location in a town… but her reason really resonated with me.
She talked about body image and the pressures on women in general, it felt cathartic to discuss. She talked about making peace with her body.
Laura bubbles with kindness and compassion, for herself and everyone around her. She talks about seeing the best in everyone - as she phrases it “waiting for them to prove me wrong”.
She didn’t have a favourite colour, but appreciates a spring palette. Using the colour language I created for myself to use with these paintings - where I have given meaning to colours - I have chosen to use pinks to represent her inner beauty shining through, blue to represent her newfound confidence and fresh greens, which represents her personal growth.
As Laura describes it, the plaque looks like it’s had confetti thrown over it, which she sees as a celebration of her new body confidence.