This painting is inspired by the colours of the Aurora Australis and the colours of Australia. Naina saw her first ever Aurora in the Adelaide Hills and wanted to paint her interpretation on canvas. This is the first in the series of paintings that she is currently working on. The series is inspired by goddesses and gods and how feminine and masculine energies interact with and elevate each other.
The title of the painting, “We Ride At Dawn” alludes to both the feminine and the masculine working together to fight the dragon. They ride together at dawn, to tackle the monster. Aurora is also the Roman Goddess of Dawn and the painting attempts of capture the light and the magic in the air.
The artist uses acrylic markers to hand-paint each artwork. Acid-free gesso is applied to the canvas before she begins the painting. Some paintings have pencil sketches on top of which the synthetic polymer paint is layered. Each painting is photographed prior to the application of varnish. Several coats of high-gloss liquid, UV resistant, museum-grade, acid-free, non-yellowing varnish is applied to the painting, and it is finished with several layers of permanent matte varnish spray, similar in grade to the liquid varnish.
About The Series
The growing discourse on gender, sexuality and identity, is what brought forth this series for the artist. While the online world can seem as polarizing and swinging between the two extremes of centuries-old misogyny and newly-minted misandry, real people in real life continue to collaborate and build lives of magical energy. After posting a couple of short videos on her Instagram page, and after reading through and responding to thousands of comments, the artist feels like the fervor has never been this in-her-face. She feels the vibrations from women who seem to be coming into their own, developing relationships with their divine and sacred selves, choosing to get to know themselves better and unlearning the conditioning of needing a man in their lives. At the same time, men seem to be coming into their own as well. Breaking free from patriarchal strong holds, exploring their spirituality and honoring the feminine within their masculine.
The lived experiences of both the feminine and the masculine are colliding. And not always in beautiful ways. Regardless, there’s an energy and a vibration around the artist that she has not experienced before in her life.
She aims to bring forth these vibrations in her paintings for this series.