Artist Statement

Maddie Fenton

Painting 1

Artist Statement

            My piece is an oil on canvas entitled, Peaches. After looking through the Frida Kahlo exhibit I wasn’t particularly inspired in terms of the style in which I wanted to go about my own self-portrait, so I then turned to Kahlo’s paintings. After researching her work a little further I found one of her paintings, Self-Portrait with Bonito (1941), to possess the same qualities of what I was looking to do in my piece. In Kahlo’s work, she has warm yellows in the background behind her head and her skin has the same yellow undertones mixed with reds in her cheeks, creating a cheerful and serene atmosphere. Her facial expression doesn’t seem to show much emotion, but the overall piece’s emotion is still very composed. On the right side of Kahlo, she has her bird, Bonito, resting on her shoulder, which is reflected in my piece as I hold my cat, Peaches. Like Kahlo’s, portrait, I chose to use warm and bright tones to express emotion. I wanted to create a happy expressive piece that mirrors my relationship with my cat. I first used an underpainting of pink and red to establish a comforting and nostalgic feeling with the piece, mostly because pink is a color that I associate with being home and it is my favorite color. I chose to include my cat in this piece because she has lived with me for over a year now and due to a lot of major changes recently in my life, I would consider her a constant and with my self-portrait I wanted to create a bold and uplifting piece that resonates with others but mainly myself.