Rested Heart 36 × 36 Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas

TThis piece began as a study in color and feeling — an exploration of how light moves across pigment, and how color, in turn, settles the body.

I started by covering the entire canvas in a deep maroon, then built slow layers of white, muted pinks, magenta, raw sienna, yellow ochre, and navy oil pastel. Each layer was allowed to dry before the next was added, creating a surface that feels grounded and luminous at once. The marks are simple — circles, smears, gestures — shaped by touch and rhythm rather than image.

While working on this piece, I had just come from a conversation centered on the question: Where is your happy place? Is it somewhere we go, or something we access within ourselves?

This painting feels like the energy of that inner place — a calm nervous system, a sense of presence, the quiet steadiness that arrives when distraction falls away. Not joy as excitement, but joy as regulation. A rested heart.

The surface is difficult to photograph accurately; the colors shift with light and proximity. It asks to be experienced in person, where its warmth, shimmer, and depth can be fully felt.