Illustration Friday: Adrift

   

"Mermaids"

I thought this painting from my archives suited last Friday's theme of "Adrift" quite well.

This painting was painted with acrylic paint, gel pens (for the dots) and oils, on watercolour paper. I gave this painting to a very nice supervisor I had in the TV station about 5 years ago because he helped me with my stalker incident. So this painting is no longer with me, but I'm happy I gave it to someone who deserved it.

Inspired by the story of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, the youngest mermaid of the sea had to watch all her older sisters go up to the surface of the sea and have their adventures.  She had to wait until she was 16 before she could go up. On the day she did, she rescued a prince from a ship in a storm and fell in love with him. So much in love with him that she was willing to give up her sweetest singing voice to split her tail into legs for him. Each step she took felt like knives stabbing her feet.

It was such a sweet tale of longing and love that I often imagined how it like to live underwater, and watch all those shadows of the big ships adrift above. What is it like to remain in the deepest depths of the ocean while being curious about having legs and a human soul? Aren't we lucky to be humans?

:) pixy