What inspired this award-winning painting?
I made this for a portfolio class my senior year. We had to pick a theme we felt strongly about, and I picked New York City, where I grew up. Many people think of NYC as crowded and dirty. I hoped that, through color, I could change that perception. I painted a building in Brooklyn. It’s ordinary—except for the flowers, which made it stand out for me. As I experimented using bright watercolors, I realized I could transform the building from ordinary to dazzling.
How did you develop the composition?
I started with a wider view. The buildings all looked the same, except for the one with flowers. I didn’t want to be too repetitive, so I cropped the scene to show only the building that was most beautiful.
How did you choose these colors?
People usually use dull brown, black, and gray for buildings. I wanted to avoid those colors. Instead I used a mix of bright, warm, and cool colors. The warm colors fill the bottom of the frame and draw the viewer’s eye up the stairs in an inviting way. I added gold for the windows, flowers, and steps to make them pretty and feel more lavish. I used cooler colors, the blues and greens, for the background. This made the warmer colors stand out.
What did you want the viewer to walk away with?
I wanted the viewer to walk away with the feeling that things can be more than they seem. Instead of saying, “Oh, that’s just a building,” I wanted them to see that, if color is used a certain way, a simple building can be so much more. Even if you don’t have a personal connection to New York and its buildings, with color I can make it feel like home.
Do you have any advice for aspiring artists like yourself?
Step out of your comfort zone and see how you can make your style different from everyone else’s.