Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Raquel Lopes

Cloudy

Cloudy began as a study of my strong desire I had to mix my love of portraiture with these expressive gestures. Texturing the background with gesso and a palette knife then painting a portrait on top. This was one of the many works I created during the year that unintentionally had no mouth. It was always accidental whether a layer on top covered it up or I left it for later and completed the portrait before the mouth, it became a pattern without my noticing. I realized after laying out my portraits together, that my work was expressing something I didn't even realize myself at the time. A limiting belief had come through my painting, I believed that my voice didn't matter, that what I had to say wasn't valuable.I have been researching self-development, mindfulness, healing from trauma, and have been working on challenging these beliefs, living more authentically, and truly this work has taught me that it's a process, and it's important to be kind to yourself ultimately.