Brenna Brumfield originally trained in oils while studying at Boise State University, but her recent work is primarily in acrylic due to the much faster drying times allowing more flexibility in developing each piece.
She specializes primarily in large scale paintings in blend of surrealism and impressionism. Emphasis is placed on painting each subject in their truest form.
She won 3rd place in the Willard Art Center’s 16th Annual National Juried Exhibition. The winning piece is named “Titania”; This was one of her first works heavily featuring the gold highlights signature to her style.
Titania
48” x 60” - Acrylic and gold foil on canvas.
“I have always been fascinated by the beauty of portraits and the human form. For this piece, I wanted to capture the essence of Titania, a fey queen featured in Midsummer’s Night Dream. I knew I wanted to create something elegant, powerful and distinctly feminine.
I have always loved the pre-Raphaelite and impressionist movements of art. Each really feel like they have a way of turning the ordinary into something fantastic. I like taking elements from those masterworks and blending them with modern diverse models and compositions to create something unique.
For the process, the work was done in a lot of layers. I knew I wanted to incorporate a bunch of flowers, almost like a wave of them covering her. I started with some smaller flowers to create a background before moving to larger ones to create more of a depth of field. The figure I blocked in with blue to the undertones of the warmer skin above would really pop.
I knew I wanted to give the piece a sense of abundance and opulence that I felt suited the namesake Titania. The thing that brough the concept together was creating a glowing halo effect around her using gold foil. From there it was just hours of slowly adding details and layers to the flowers, the swirls of her curls on the gold foil and touching it up with gold paint.”
Recent Portraits, Landscapes, and Florals:
