Nina Pet Portrait

This was a gift for an ex—kind of. We went on a date to the koi pond at Hahn Horticulture Garden, and I was inspired to paint this. It was my first time trying to date seriously, and I did everything “right,” waiting for feelings to show up. They didn’t. He didn’t. I let him…

I painted this while working through a lot of emotion—feeling lost and frustrated. Her gaze carries that weight. She might be looking at you, or just past you, and it’s up to the viewer to decide what she’s thinking. Peaceful? Sad? Something in between? This was an experiment in light and contrast—chiaroscuro with loose, impressionistic…

I painted this in one sitting—six hours straight—as a birthday gift for my mom. It began with a monochromatic reference, but the colors didn’t stay quiet. They surged forward, unexpected and insistent, like they had their own momentum. It felt less like I was choosing them and more like they were choosing me. This was…

I painted this as a gift, starting with photobashed references and building out the scene from there. I added water, birds, ruins, and subtle hue shifts throughout to make it feel a little surreal—like a dream you can almost remember. The elephant is the centerpiece, standing calm in the middle of something ancient and overgrown….