My painting is inspired by the art piece Dancing Mutants by Hernando R. Ocampo. Ocampo was born on 28th April 1911 and died on 28th December 1978. He was known for having very abstract pieces with deeper meanings. Dancing Mutants is based on the horrors of war. The green plants are silhouettes of humans mutated by the bombs. In the original painting there is a very limited colour pallette (red and green) which I have also reflected onto my paintings limited colour scheme (blue and red). In the painting there is seaweed that is coiling together to create the image of humans struggling. I used the theme of being underwater and chose the jellyfish to represent the coils shown in the original artwork. 

Jellyfishes represent acceptance, which is something that as teenagers we need to learn. As for the number 8, I chose it because jellyfishes most commonly have 8 tentacles as well as the fact that 8 is known for being a lucky number in Chinese culture. There are hints of periwinkle (purply blue) in the background which is often associated with protection from wild beasts and poison which is quite ironic seeing and jellyfish are known for their stings. To create the perfect 8. I used a stencil. I made this stencil by using a craft knife to cut out the perfect 8 shape and then used a dry brushing technique to paint it. The process of painting was quite a hectic with many different changes needing to be made. One of the biggest changes I made to the painting was changing the 8 from a dark maroon colour to the current bright blue.