Endymion © 2025 by Paige Kelly is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This is a painting I created as a final assignment for my painting processes class. The title comes from the Mardi Gras parade Endymion. The goal of this painting was to capture the feeling of being a kid at Mardi Gras.
The assignment was to create a painting based on an artist. I chose Louisa Chircop, a Maltese-Australian Surrealist painter whose gallery I visited at MUŻA, Malta’s National Community Art Museum.
I was specifically inspired by her 2020 work Body of Water (Fig. 1) and her 2025 Grotto Girl series. I mostly drew inspiration from the previous, because her Grotto Girl series is mostly collage. Originally, I wanted to draw more literally from the theme of history, with original ideas revolving around banned artworks, cave paintings, and the radium girls. However, Chircop’s work is more introspective and personal so I decided to draw upon my personal history. I went through my camera roll and saw that my childhood photos from Mardi Gras sort of matched her vibe.
Body of Water. 2020. Watercolor. Bundamon
I used the triangular shape of the flowing water for a frame and added elements from pictures of Mardi Gras floats I have gathered from over the years. After a suggestion from Anna, I gave my siblings and I crawfish heads. The lanterns came from the Muses Goddessey float (Fig. 11 and 12) and the tree is based on the Christmas-light covered oaks in central park (Fig. 10).
To achieve the glowing effect on the lanterns, I used yellow acrylic ink for a base layer, but only under the lanterns. The rest of the base layer was in blue acrylic ink. I painted the hands first, because I did not want to keep mixing the skin color every time I painted a person. I had to reposition the me-crawfish because I accidentally drew the ladder too large and we were not squished enough. I had to repaint the tree several times, because it was either too noticeable or completely blended into the background. I decided to have the background blend over it in some parts. I also added a layer of brown over the lights on the tree because they were too distracting.
Some Progress Photos:
Endymion © 2025 by Paige Kelly is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0