This painting was heavily inspired by the original work of Boschbrand, Forest Fire by Raden Saleh (1849). The thing I liked most about the Forest Fire painting was how I could see the struggle of a collapsing hierarchy, and how there is no escape to “death”. The colour palette I chose was in the theme of red, green and black. I decided to base my project from the bombing in WW2, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The colours represent the fires burning over the houses and grass in Japan, much like a hellscape - the fire that killed millions of citizens. The black is the smoke that spread over the entire area. I used poster paint to complete this work by mixing a variety of different shades reds on the palette, each one with exquisite care to try and recreate the fear and anguish of what people during that time must’ve felt like. To create texture, I used a palette knife and spread the paint across the card, in a free-style manner. If you look closer- you may see perpendicular lines, arranged to make a few 4s scattered- in my language, this usually means death in my language, of which addresses the many lives thrown away (arguably) for the “future of the world”. In my drafts, I made a tree design in the middle of a fire as trees can define as life (I believe that I was trying to imply that of a tree’s precious life in the middle of death).

I liked a few aspects on this work. Overall, I was satisfied on how the colours contrasted nicely together and didn’t blend in weirdly. I tried to match the vivid colours on the black background. I would say, that on this piece, I wanted it to look more complete because there is no ‘subject’ to focus on this painting. To be honest, I was focused too much on making it look like the original artwork, that I did not add much from my own art style (making a scene by adding at least one subject into it). I hope this helped you understand what this painting was about, and my personal connection with it.