Junior Quyen Nguyen’s piece showcases the many different facets of spring. Nguyen depicts a serene and whimsical spring scene dotted with bright accent colors. She begins by color blocking the darkest areas and then proceeds to layer colors on until she reaches the visual foreground. 

“I also try to incorporate as many textures as I see fit and paint loosely,” Nguyen said. 

For many of her pieces, she draws inspiration from nature which she sees as a constantly changing and raw type of beauty. 

“Nature’s subjectivity and imperfections inspire me as well because there’s truly no right or wrong depiction of it,” Nguyen said. 

The piece was originally a gouache painting she had completed in January, which was later digitized. Like many of her peers, Nguyen creates art digitally on Procreate. 

“I use a software on my iPad called Procreate, which is a digital drawing and painting application,” Nguyen said.

Junior Ace Atkinson’s piece, “Blowing up 2020,” expresses her New Year’s resolution to leave behind 2020, a year filled with disappointment and anger.

“I was angry about the past year, so in short of a metaphorical sense, it was blowing up all the bad things I had been through last year,” Atkinson said. 

Atkinson creates her art digitally on the app Procreate. Atkinson’s piece features a variety of different cool-toned warm colors that make up the explosion effect in the background. The colors are offset by the dark background, which further accentuates the focal point of the piece. 

“I’ve been a digital artist most of my art career, so it’s my preferred medium most of the time, and I feel more at ease when I get the digital manipulation,” Atkinson said. 

To Atkinson, art has always been an imaginative medium where she could escape to create unique characters and scenarios. However, as her time spent inside increased, she began to look for other creative outlets such as reading or watching Twitch to stimulate her artistry. 

“It can be lonely at times, but that’s where art comes in again. I just get back up, dust myself off and create something I haven’t before,” Atkinson said.

Senior Luca Doutt found inspiration in his own backyard. “Japanese Mandala” is inspired by the vibrant red Japanese maple leaves he finds scattered across his backyard. 

“I took the photo in December, so the leaf was a cool looking red, which is what I based the color scheme around,” Doutt said. 

Using the photo editor GIMP, Doutt cut out pieces of the mandala and mimicked the red color scheme of the leaves. He did face some difficulties because he did not have access to Photoshop like he would in class. 

“During virtual learning, I’ve had to get creative and learn to use new software other than Photoshop and Illustrator. Usually, I try to just think of ideas as I go and work with what I have,” Doutt said.