Eli Ruhala

Grade: 11

Medium: Oil paint

Untitled

Describe your piece in three words:

Hardship, family, motherly.

What was your inspiration?

Definitely had to do with how my mom goes through so much, through not only separation from her children but also working so hard to provide for her family, so that’s what inspired this piece especially.

What was going through your head as you were making it?

We moved, so it’s that whole idea of her doing so much for the move especially, so that was kind of an outlet.

What did you learn from this painting?

I learned some new ways to apply oil paint especially in lowlight areas so that I could just do little sparks of highlights.

How would you describe your art style?

Very sculptural technique. It’s representational painting so it’s kind of from life or from a picture, and then I’ll take that and apply a specific style to it, which has very hard edges. Instead of smoothing out everything out, I usually leave my brush stroke in the painting.

If you could hang out with one dead artist, who would it be?

Salvador Dali.