Gaia Watercolour Painting

My reinterpretation of Gaia

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Done in watercolours on cold-pressed watercolour paper
| approx. 3 or 4 hours in total, 3 sittings | Jan 2018 |

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A little backstory on how I came about creating this piece:

I have a friend in India, Adeeb, whom is insanely creative and like me, very passionate about art. We met online on a game (yes omgosh I play games xD, you'd be surprised by how many incredible people you might meet on these things) and have known each other for about five or six months now. Every time we started a conversation with each other, we'd be exchanging ideas or experiences and we'd always end up talking for hours until some one had to force themself to put down the phone and do something else.

He is now only turning 19 (that age gap be like), and through a student exchange program, he's been to quite a few places and have met a lot of people. He's shared with me many stories, one of them being that every time he went somewhere he would exchange pins with the students he meets. He collects them and pins them up on his school blazer.

Here's a picture of that :

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He's a big fan of Game of Thrones and this
was one of his projects with friends for an annual college event:

-Adeeb in pic with 'The Iron Throne' made of cardboard

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(We're getting to the part about me creating the painting I promise hehe) And he's always sharing and coming up with ideas for a project or drawing to do. If anyone knew me well enough, they would know I haven't always been the best with ideas, I've always just been more capable of executing things and making sure they turn out perfectly. I guess that's why the greatest creations come out of a good team, you always need the other persons to support you where you lack.

The idea of creating this piece also came from him, this was about a month ago. He found a picture of a crying earth lady and insisted on recreating the illustration, I will leave it to him to show you his work once he joins steemit! (That's right, Deeb. I'm waiting on you) I decided on doing the same, and gave it my own reinterpretation.

It took me a long time to actually sit down and get it going, I'm always busy with work and making deadlines. I wanted to picture Gaia as pure, innocent and serene. Her head hanging low with a slight smile on her face as if to show humility. The world gave us so much love, why do we choose to destroy it? They say a picture is worth a thousand words, this painting meant a million more to me.

Being a perfectionist, I've always done paintings to perfection, made sure I had every detail down right. This piece was done free of all those worries, I chose to simply let my hands do what it wanted, and I really enjoyed it. It may not seem complete, but I guess that's what art has always been. "Art is never finished, only abandoned"

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- Early stages layering colours

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The blue sky is her mind,
the green leaves pulse
with her blood,
the wind is her breath,
the rain, her water of life.

She is Gaia, the Earth Mother,
but also subtler than that.

-- Ram Dass