Allegory of Curiosity

The process

From first sketch to finished painting.

1. First post · October 29, 2025

   

   Here's a picture of my palette after yesterday's session...some fun pigments in there that I don't get to use that often (phthalo green, cobalt teal, etc.) I'm working on a large underwater scene so these unusual colors are going to be the norm going forward for the next several weeks.

2. Stage 2 · October 30, 2025

   

   Sometimes at the start of a painting day, I like to set up my palette with a few ‘color strings’ so that I have some small pre-made mixtures ready to work into the section I am painting that day. These ‘strings’ take just a few minutes to mix in the morning, and then they save me loads of time throughout the rest of the day as I have lots of options across hue, chroma, and most importantly, value ranges

3. Stage 3 · October 31, 2025

   

   Here is a slide from my presentation I gave a few weeks ago regarding my idea for an allegory of curiosity painting. Since then, that idea has come a long way and it’s totally different than I first envisioned thanks to the feedback from my fellow artists. I’m still in the beginning stages of this painting but really chugging away and hope in the coming weeks and months that I have something really special to share with you that reminds us all to stay curious in our lives.

4. Stage 4 · November 3, 2025

   

   A close-up of the figure outline I’ll be working into this morning. Friday was a bit of a struggle as I added my second layer to two of the other figures I already blocked into my composition. I spent so much of the day correcting some of the proportions I established on my first pass, so it’s a good reminder to really take my time and do a good job during this session today.

5. Stage 5 · November 4, 2025

   

   Before joining the Seattle Prize, I was kind of a night owl and a lot of my most intense working sessions would carry late into the night. This new schedule has given me a chance to change my routine, however, and I find that the morning hours are the most ripe for productive work—fine detailing and passages that require the most attention and brain power. After lunch if I can feel like I’ve already accomplished an important section for the day, the afternoon can consist of something a little lighter on my mental faculties, maybe scrubbing in a large pass or mapping out for the next day’s session

6. Stage 6 · November 11, 2025

   

   The inspiration board I have on display outside my studio wall. Most of these examples are historical, but there are a few contemporary paintings mixed in as well. They are all examples of what I understand Rehumanism to be.

7. Stage 7 · November 20, 2025

   

   Here is a picture of my first painting “Allegory of Curiosity” (still very much a work-in-progress) before the fellowship’s first critique this afternoon. Seeing it like this in a digital format has already highlighted a bunch of issues I am seeing and areas I can improve on (or just change completely). I’m curious to get some honest feedback and hear what people think. Say a prayer for me!

8. Stage 8 · November 25, 2025

   

   Got some awesome feedback at my critique last week in front of our film crew. I took a lot of notes and the next few weeks will comprise of me going through section by section to make the necessary adjustments to my painting.

9. Stage 9 · December 4, 2025

   

   My mermaids have come a long way since my critique a couple weeks ago. I’m polishing things up so that I hopefully have this canvas completed by the end of the year.

10. Stage 10 · December 11, 2025

    

    This past week has been one of my best since arriving in Seattle. Last Thursday we had our monthly pizza night with Andrew and caught up on everyone’s projects. I’ve made significant progress on my mermaid painting and am finally entering the home stretch. Over the weekend, some of us fellows l visited a farm and spent the afternoon painting sheep from life. It was cold but a great way to spend an afternoon. And on Tuesday, we toured the Seattle Art Museum’s Farm to Table exhibition after hours and got a private walkthrough of late-19th-century French paintings centered on food and agriculture. Right up my alley! I’m heading home to Chicago next week for the holidays, but I’m on such a good streak here that I almost don’t want to step away.

11. Stage 11 · January 8, 2026

    

    I’m in the later stages of my mermaid painting, though there are still a few key areas to resolve before it’s truly finished. The most important figure in the composition—the mermaid on the left—has been my main focus this week. For some time, I struggled to articulate the scales of her tail in a way that felt natural, fish-like, and convincingly three-dimensional. I think I’ve now arrived at a solution. Rather than using a more complex, double-turning S-curve, I simplified the form into a single, broad, sweeping curve—something more in line with how you might expect a mermaid’s tail to move. Along with that, the approach to the scaling has evolved. There’s still work to be done: adding highlights, subtle glints, sparkles, and clearer color separation to fully bring the tail to life. That said, it feels like I’m on the right track. I also made several anatomical adjustments to the upper body—tapering the rear deltoid, allowing the tricep to assert itself more, and unifying the clavicle plane so it feels more convincingly lit. I repainted the hand, which will later be glazed, and rethought the hair to better convey an underwater environment. Instead of hanging downward, it now flows outward, giving it a lighter, more buoyant feel. Altogether, I think these changes significantly strengthen the figure. The reference photo I have is just a quick iPhone snapshot, so it doesn’t fully capture the nuance of the surface, but I’m confident these refinements will have a meaningful impact on the finished painting. The remaining challenge is resolving how the lower fin settles into the sand—finding a way for it to rest naturally and integrate seamlessly with the seafloor.

12. Stage 12 · January 22, 2026

    

    It's interesting looking back at all the work-in-progress photos that have been taken throughout the process of this painting, because it reminds me how much things have changed and how solidified I thought my vision was from the start, but also how apparently it was not really at all. This painting that I thought might have taken six to eight weeks has ended up taking a full 13—granted I've been working on other projects during that time—but it shows that to create the best work, it does take time. And even when you think you've planned, little problems come up that you have to overcome as the artist. So with that said, I'm very excited to unveil the finished product, hopefully sometime next week, potentially even in my next post. I've learned so much working on this piece, and I think it's a good start to my tenure in the program. But taking the lessons I've learned, I know that my future works are going to be even superior to this one. So stay tuned.

13. Latest · January 29, 2026