I have always loved Alphonse Mucha’s art- before I even knew his name or could recognize his pieces, I saw work that was inspired by him and I thought it was beautiful. I came to learn more about Mucha’s work and the Art Nouveau style as a whole, my sister Amanda and I would often point out how enchanting Art Nouveau design made everyday life.
One year Amanda gifted me a book of Alphonse Mucha’s work for my birthday. And I knew I wanted to use it as a tool in some way to create something myself. As a thank you for the book, and for Amanda's birthday in December 2022 I decided to make Amanda her own Mucha inspired painting.
Mucha’s work is very iconic and there are many aspects I wanted to include to be sure my small painting would fall into his style while still being an original piece. Some distinguishing traits include: a female subject- often depicted as an allegory of nature, detailed clothing and drapery, fluid movement of hair, bold illustrative lines, graphic borders, and floral decorations.
I wanted my painting to portray the Moon and the night sky. Mucha’s “Moonlight” was an inspiration for the tone and color of the painting and I used the ‘Emerald’ figure from his series “The Precious Stones” as reference for my figure’s pose.
I decided to include the Moonflower as my floral decoration as their star shape and night time blooming made them the perfect symbol for the illustration.
This painting was done on a small wood panel with a rough bark edge. I thought the organic shape and finish was in line with the tone of the piece as well. After deciding on my composition and design elements on paper, I then began the final piece with an acrylic base layer and white pastel pencil sketch.
As is often the case for projects I make as gifts, I was in a rush to finish this piece. From the sketch on paper to finished painting- I completed this in about a day. While this rush often occurs by mistake, (and usually in December when I commit to the most gift projects) it also forces me to stay on task with a piece. Working with it until I am happy with each portion of it.
After the acrylic base,I used gouache for the rest of the painting. Starting by covering large areas in a middling hue before layering on further tone and details.
As I focused in on the features of the figure, she began to look more and more like me- not intentional but I suppose that happens often when I’m improvising a face. (And honestly an image of me happily sleeping among stars and moons and flowers would not be out of place in my portfolio of work.) However, as this was meant to be an allegorical figure, I made some slight changes- the tone of her hair and the shape of her face- to make her her own character.
And now this allegory of the night sky is in Amanda’s home, resting above a witch altar of beautiful pieces of nature and other paintings Amanda has inspired me to create for her.
Written October 2024