"Center Stage" Original Oil Painting Final Update

Below is the entire process of "Center Stage". It took me about a year to finally complete this painting.

This is a current painting that I am working on  called "Center Stage". It is inspired by Salvador Dali.  Someone told me that my work has surrealistic tendencies, so i decided to work with it. 

This is the first progress pic of Center Stage. I painted over another painting called Lady in the Water that I was not found of. Either way I enjoy starting fresh because it gives me the opportunity to make an even better painting. It is also a great learning experience, so time is never wasted. I said my goodbyes to the painting and so I started with the dark blue sky and then slowly worked my way down. I then proceeded to paint the blue mountains. I am fascinated with cobalt blue for some reason. I use it in most of my paintings.

This is when I painted the curtains and noticed the right curtain looked like a face. I worked with it and made it more prominent. I was originally going to have a women morphed into the curtains and reaching out to the mountains. But I decided to follow my creative instinct.

I also added a spotlight to the landscape. I have several ideas for the direction of this painting, but my creative instinct will probably take over, which will result into something else.This is what I have so far.


 For the past month I have been dedicated to finishing up the semester and working on my watercolor paintings, but now that I am finally done with class I have more time to focus on my oil paintings. During the semester I have also been working on getting over my fear of formal public speaking and so I developed a painting named "Center Stage". I truly went out of my way to diminish this fear. I went out to a karaoke bar and sang "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi, participated in a runway fashion show, and chose to present my final project.
A quote that has motivated me to push through these fear is “do one thing everyday that scares you”  by Eleanor Roosevelt.

http://quotes–songs.tumblr.com/post/30611141207/do-one-thing-everyday-that-scares-you-eleanor

This quote is special to me because I try to live by it almost every day. For most of my life I have been afraid of a lot of things, so by exposing myself to all the fears and getting out of my comfort zone I know that with time my fears will subside.

Center Stage is a symbol for overcoming the fears. The work below are progress pictures, I am still working on this painting. I also plan to make a video that will include some clips from the fashion show that I participated in and also the painting process. I hope you like this update. I plan on updating more soon, so stay tuned:)

I added the mountain bluebird and the microphone. I hope to add something on the curtains and then make the video. :)

close up of "Center Stage"

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close up of "Center Stage"

Final Update: June 26, 2013


Center Stage is finally complete. I am on a mission to complete all of my unfinished paintings. This is one of those.

Below is the complete piece.