Watercolour on Canvas
The artist has expressed using a multitude of colours on this piece. She was feeling very passionate and expressive, and this was a piece where she actually picked up the canvas and let the paint run to create the apparent phoenix in the centre of the canvas. She also used long brush strokes and a spray bottle to create this painting.
The artist, Erika has stated that she was feeling peaceful and content upon creating this small piece, done on a raised canvas that is quite small in size compared to the cosmos that it represents. This is one of her versions of the heavens. She chose bright blue, and pastel purple, because those are her two favourite colours. She has an aura reading done at one point in her life, and was given an image very similar to the colours in this picture as well, even including the splashes of white.
This piece was inspired be the artist's connection with Mother Nature and is a colourful representation of the turmoil our planet is going through right now in regards to our environment. It is also a piece celebrating feminine energy, which is influenced by the moon. Our coastlines and oceans are so polluted, and storm surges caused by global warming are happening all over the world, causing massive devastation. Erika has a strong connection to the ocean, as she spent her first years as a child living right down the road from one of Nova Scotia's most famous white sand beaches, White Point.
This painting is completely open to the interpretation of the viewer, but some have told the artist that the star shapes could represent sunbursts, or even fireworks. The artist used lots of short, straight brush strokes, and pastel colours here the create the effects seen on the canvas. This was one of Erika's original works, and she was just beginning to experiment with different paints and mediums.