Through oil paints, Hall depicts live figures

Moorea Hall '15 is an oil painter, taught to embrace learning through creativity at a young age. Her talent for the arts flourished, and Hall took art classes every year in public school.

There in high school, Hall met who she dubbed her most influential mentor—her art teacher, Tom Holland. "My art teacher, Tom Holland, really pushed me to try new methods," Hall said. "He taught himself how to use glaze first, which is an old master skill that Renaissance painters used to use. He later on taught this skill to me."

Her work began with direct painting, when the paint is transferred directly on to the canvas with brushes. Hall switched her paintbrush for a palette knife, to further manipulate the paints. "Pallete knife painting allows more free expression for the artist," Hall said. "A lot of the stress from painting comes from the need to follow the drawing lines."

Direct painting creates a blurrier image; palette a sharper, well-blended image. Hall often thought about Holland's teachings to help inspire her work, appreciating his outlook on life. "He was funny, a little wry, but very encouraging without being flattering," Hall said. "He always pushed me to be better."

Hall noted the qualities of painting with glazes specifically as a medium. "Glaze is very translucent, so you just layer and layer and layer to get this luminescent glow," Hall explained. "Unlike normal oil paint, painting with glaze is extremely time consuming, so you can only work for an hour a day. You paint a layer, then wait until it dries and layer on top. Otherwise, you would just be pushing paint off the surface each time."

One of Hall's favorite subjects is live figures. "For a while I was interested in doing backs and shoulders. I liked how the muscles catch the light and how the skin's color changes with the light," Hall said. "I'm also interested in painting ballerinas because after taking figure drawing class I want to catch the best part of the figure in action."

Hall enjoys the grace and elegance of ballet, and its accompanying ballerina dancers. "Like me, ballerinas are very detail oriented. I like how they are so dedicated to perfection. Every move they make is calculated, and it's hard to catch one of those moves and immortalize it," Hall said. "So if can capture it through a painting, that one second of perfection from months of training is captured."

Her favorite piece from among her works is Ballerina I. Its subject was based on "Swan Lake." To create the final image, she used stock photos and live models as sources. This was the first time Hall had to create the background from imagination.

"I definitely worked hardest on this piece. It took a total of two months, four hours a week," Hall said. "I was really trying to find my own style, which is difficult when you are using models. The background came out straight out of my mind, and this was a big step, definitely." Hall has used photographs before to compose her images, sometimes taking multiple photos to inspire painted, unique composites.

Hall isn't enrolled in any art classes currently, but still has made time for her passion. "I would love to take a painting class. I don't agree with the drawing requirements. I already had to take three Intro Drawing classes in the past six years because I moved around so much," Hall said.

Hall added, "Art is more of a hobby for me. I plan to major in Art History and want to be an art conservator, particularly for Renaissance and Baroque art."