Drawn to the Shore
Drawn to the Shore is a portrait of Ariel, based on the Disney film, The Little
Mermaid and is a tribute to one of my favorite Pre-Raphaelite artists, John William
Waterhouse. I’ve always admired his paintings of nymphs and mermaids with their
softly modeled skin and ambient lighting and wished to create that same feel here.
This painting, however, is much more turbulent, focused on that moment that Ariel
is caught in where she must make a decision to either stay the security of her home
in the ocean or risk leaving it for a life on land with the man she loves. After
rereading the original text and combining that with the Disney storyline, one
discovers that her decision is neither an easy one nor painless one, and the longing
and struggle is apparent in her expression. In the open shells beside her balance the
curiosity of what she’s collected with the importance they hold in her life. The
chess pieces she’s found are a King and a Knight, representing her father and her
Prince, respectively, and how she must decide between them at this point in the
story, all while in the midst of the constantly crashing waves that move the
narrative forward.