Teacher Name: Gabriel Mejia
Materials: Acrylic paint on paper
Description: Complementary Color Scheme
Artist Statement: These art pieces were created for an assignment called “My Chicago.” Essentially we had to make pieces based off meaningful places to us around the city of Chicago.
The blue line painting was inspired by my memory of taking the train for the first time. The reason for taking the train was to accompany my mother to her citizenship ceremony and that place holds a meaningful memory to my mother.
The second piece was inspired by a trip I made to the Chicago Botanic Gardens, this place was meaningful to me because I took my grandparents here when they came from Mexico. My grandma loved the view of the bridge and scenery.
When I create paintings I begin with an initial concept of what I’m trying to create. Then, I sketch a light version of what I’m envisioning as my final product. After sketching I start from the farthest point in my piece to the closest objects since the closer objects require more details. Once I place the base colors I go in to add smaller details with a very thin brush which allows me to create dimension in my pieces.
Personally I enjoy utilizing tempera paints and acrylic paints as they’re easier art mediums for me to control. I also think that these paints allow me to work on more of the painting within the same day because the paint dries quickly. For these pieces I also utilized small and thin brushes in order to go in to small details that a bigger brush can’t really do.
To me art in general is a means of self expression that can come in many forms. These pieces that I created symbolize places that I’ve created valuable memories alongside some of the most important people in my life. These places display my view on Chicago from a nature and urban perspective as well.
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