Semester Two
Updated: Jun 16
Once Upon A Dream
A mystery lady and a dream of a photo.
August 17th, 2025.
I have a big 24x30 canvas again.
I'm jonesing to paint again.
New muse is a series of photos I found via Pinterest. When I click on the photo, it takes me to blog post discussing how a lady found some negatives in a thrift store and wanted help identifying who the lady or ladies were in these very old vintage photos taken at a beach during sunset or sunrise.
I found them so hauntingly beautiful. What a beautiful mystery this lady was.
Was she missing something? A sense of longing. A feeling like chasing the ending of something. Not wanting to let go. Or was it? Was she letting go, moving on? Walking towards a sunrise instead of a sunset? Was she happy or sad? Was she feeling strong against the waves? She did seem to have a feminine strength in her pose. Is she having a nightmare? A lovely daydream you wish to stay in?
I mean, what a poignant way she seemed to be walking into the ocean. I decided on the one where she is mainly waist deep into the ocean, facing away. I cropped it for my canvas and away I went.
A good start. We got the basis of a nice pastel color block of where things should go.
Too bad for the semester painting, I needed 8 weeks off to focus on Halloween. I tend to makeshift some of my costumes to wear and needed to hand sew some accessories for the look I went with this time around.
I think it was just coincidence that I chose a vintage 1950s lady look while also trying to paint a 1950s mystery lady.
Getting better definition to the color blocks in the ocean. Looking like a good base for details later.
Some smoothing of the colors. Getting some shadows and highlights going. Very saturated blues for the moment.
But now I have to take another 12 weeks off from this semester painting as my estranged father passed. I had no ability to concentrate creatively while going thru the huge range of emotions that brought on.
Detail was next to work on and it felt like a lot until it didn't anymore and I could be creative again.
Genius me, had a pretty good way to rough draft the details. I used marker. I used some type of white marker that was for bottle labels we had laying around, and some color markers from my college days. It helped get over the detail jitters.
The lady was next. I did my best with hair because it's so dark on the photo to see the detail of the curls. I left some marker detail visible as it adds to the impressionist like mess that I want for brushstrokes down there.
An important NOTE:
Only a week left from completing the painting, did I finally went back and researched what was made of the story behind the photos and if anyone found who the lady was. Best to just go to this webpage here, where they tell the story of how Meagan Abell found the photos of a music album photoshoot for a jazz singer named Claudia Thompson.
Now that you know her story also, you can possibly understand how I dislike the lady I painted. I still like the painting skill I used and the mood being set. Just not the reason the lady I painted is a white lady...
Luckily, it being MY painting, I can say the lady I painted is brown skinned and no one can tell me otherwise.
I like how it turned out. I know I can do better if I ever try ocean waves again. But for my first major go at it, they at least look like what I had intended. Waves.
I got this completed on June 13th, 2026. It took more like 23 weeks with this one not including the 5 months off from any painting endeavors. It's also just hours on weekends that I can put towards a semester painting like this, as I still have a day job of being a graphic designer. So for a weekend hobby, I find it harder to complete a big canvas in a semester without a quarantine to help it along. I guess I oughta to paint more semester paintings to truly find that out. wink and smirk
Even though I came up with the title "Once upon a dream" before I knew of Claudia's story, I think it suits it well. I believe Claudia did happen upon her dream once. Her dream of being a famous and successful jazz singer, with the album "Goodbye to Love".
Goodbye to you, Claudia and thank you for the inspiration, nonetheless.
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