Large mermaid tryptic painting completed

“Bella Donna” is three panels of 24×48″ gallery wrap canvases that would hang an inch from each other and cover 75×48″ space. I wanted to portray an underwater siren with the lighting I have seen while diving. The reflection on the bottom of the sandy bottom reflect up onto the mermaid and sea creatures. I started with black canvases and painted the ocean water with teal and blue sheer metallic paints so its quite a dark painting…just like it would be under the sea.

Mermaid tryptic painting completed

Denise and Sean Hotchkiss purchased the large mermaid painting called “Entangled” but wanted to put it on a very tall 2 story wall in their den. So they commissioned me to add on to the scene with two side panels. I added a sting raw and the other parts of two large octopus, additional fish and kelp. Tomorrow the varnish goes on and then install next week.

Painting a Mermaid tutorial

As I have cleaning up my office, sometimes surprising images emerge. This was a painting I did in 2003 and glad that I captured the painting process with my camera. Its interesting to see where the drawing started and evolved into a painting. Jeanne le Mer was 24 x 48 and was sold years ago.

New mermaid painting with octopus

“Entangled” is 36×48 gallery wrap just completed. Its been hard to come up with a title because the expression on this siren’s face is that of surprise (like she was caught dancing with the octopus) but I thought “Entangled” was a better title since it can have many meanings. Her face changed many times as I worked on her for weeks and at one point she was looking off to the right but I wanted her expression to be more mysterious. Sometimes in life, we are pulled in every direction with the responsibilities of family and work..we tend to smile through the chaos of daily life as the fish (or other distractions) saunter by.
The size of this painting is fairly large so will go nicely in a living room, or dining area.