Original artwork description:

An acrylic painting created to encourage young people to be brave and stand tall, or stand out from others, to be who they want to be, to embrace being different whether that be in sexuality or simply by wearing different coloured clothes. And this does apply to everyone not just young people, but, as someone who spent over 25 years teaching and seeing teenagers angst and wanting to appear the same as everyone else - that was the trigger for this piece.

This piece is special to me as my son was just about to embark on a gap year over in the UK. As I painted I thought of him and willed him to be brave and head thousands of miles away, even though part of me just wanted to keep him close.

Materials used:

acrylic paints, glazing & gel medium, varnish, applied by brushes

Tags:

#painting #expressive #impressionism #impressionist #animal #acrylic on canvas #bright #painting on canvas #animal art #bold #vibrant colours #expressive art #giraffe #inspirational #giraffe painting