Title: Study of Still Life Fruit Photo
Medium: Oil Paint
Bio: A junior at Watchung Hills Regional High School, Allan Zhu is a self-proclaimed artist, although he spends more time reading Pokédex entries than actually drawing. He chose “Fine Arts Honors” as an elective this year to focus on art and balance academic stress by creating art, which he has loved doing since childhood as a hobby-turned-passion. He enjoys using any available mediums to create art, varying from acrylics and watercolors to charcoal sticks and digital art. Free time is usually occupied by new ideas, scrambles of original characters on notebook paper, and hastily written notes for a future “E.D.E.N.” project that he hopes to release into the far future.
Allan aims to continue his dream into college and push his art career to better heights, with a simple objective to make others around him seen or happy. He has taken steps to achieve this through obtaining two Scholastic Art Award “Silver Keys” and four Honorable Mentions, which would not be possible without years of support. He is very grateful for the opportunities that have shown up for him, and people and teachers who helped facilitate artistic growth.
Inspiration:
The study of the still life fruit photo was primarily chosen for accessibility. This was my first time using oil paints, and being nervous I wanted to find something easy to transition into technique-wise, while being appealing in structure or content. The warm color palette from the bell peppers was suitable for the brown turp wash underpainting, and the photo fit well into the canvas that I learned to construct by hand. In retrospect, I believe it was a decent pick. I hope to do original paintings soon.
Allan Zhu, 12th grade (fall of 26-27)