Thursday, January 12, 2012

Dia de la Abby: #69 Skull of Seasons

I've been playing with this idea for years...to make a painting that showed one object split into 4 and affected by the seasons.



I choose one of my favorite place in Richmond, Maymont, as inspiration for showing the seasons. They have a koi pond and beautiful foliage, so it was an easy choice with lots of possibilities. The aging of the skull was inspired by old relic skulls found in oceans. Granted that skulls don't float, but depicting it this way made it easier to split it into four parts. The seasons from the top left clockwise, are Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. Fall has colorful falling leaves and acorns (in the nose), which are common here (and other places) during the fall. Winter has snow, but we tend to have odd winters. Rain and ice would have been more accurate, but harder to paint. Spring has baby koi and shorter water plants. Summer has an adult koi and taller water plants. The water plants are grass like at Maymont. Every year (probably every few months) workers have to pull large amounts of it out of the pond, because it grows too thickly and hinders the Koi from swimming.

This painting took 3 days to complete. I enjoyed experimenting with painting techniques and taking my time. Painting like this is still fairly new to me, but it's very rewarding to see the finished products.

6 comments:

Noah said...

Love this piece! Great concept, great execution, and of course great source of inspiration!

Abby Davis said...

Thank you! I'm very happy with how it came out. It took a lot of research and redoing sections before it looked nice together. Makes me want to go to Maymont and see the koi!

Amy said...

This is incredible, Abby. I love how you differentiated Spring from Summer with baby fish growing into adulthood.

Abby Davis said...

Thanks Amy! Those fish were one of the hardest things to paint. I had to play with my original concept to make it work with a skull. I'm glad you like it!

Tatman said...

A skull for all seasons. Nice work, A!

Abby Davis said...

Thanks J!