The Hero Who Stayed

The theme of my artwork was, “My hero”, which I decided to represent through my own experience with love. Love comes in many different forms: it could be a friend at school, a family member, or a significant other. The image is of a couple saying a final goodbye to each other with a kiss before a train departs. Although the couple in the image are not representations of me or my partner, the moment they both share is supposed to represent the role love has played in my life. I created this artwork to express how love can become heroic, something that rescues, restores, and heals a person.

The act of the couple sharing a special moment is a gesture that represents effort, connection, and the human desire to hold onto someone even when circumstances pull you apart. The dark colour palette reflects a time in my life when I felt lost and overwhelmed, and honestly hopeless. There seemed to be no light in my life. The woman symbolises how love lifted me out of that darkness. In my personal story, the hero is my boyfriend, a cliche but also a truth, someone who found me in a difficult place and helped me feel safe again. Although he is not literally depicted, the emotion of the artwork expresses what his presence means to me.The train represents uncertainty, movement, and the fragility of time. Trains arrive and depart, just as people enter and leave our lives. By including the train and the smoke drifting across the scene, I wanted to communicate the message that we should be grateful for the people we love because we never know when things might change, or when it’s someone’s time to leave. The smoke also suggests the idea of moments slipping away, emphasising how precious connection is, and how important it is to live in the moment.

For this artwork, I worked with acrylic paint, starting with large brushes to put in the base colours and shadows. Using bigger brushes allowed me to create broad, smooth areas of tone and establish the dark, moody background quickly. Once the foundation was in place, I switched to smaller brushes to add details. This layering technique helped me build depth and contrast, allowing the focal point to stand out sharply against the darker surroundings while keeping the overall texture rich and expressive.