Ascension by the Sea 2020

Jana Brike made this painting, Ascension by the Sea, and I can only imagine the artist’s delicate hand, layering the oil paint, pushing and pulling the colors into being. The colors are bright, romantic even – there’s an ocean, an ethereal woman, and a golden sky above her. It’s a strange scene – this woman is in the process of floating away, ascending into the heavens. But you can see how much work has gone into painting this; it’s meticulous, with so many intricate details. Even the landscape around her feels like a fairytale. I wonder if she was inspired by the pre-Raphaelites; she is definitely exploring similar themes, such as the depiction of feminine beauty, spirituality, and storytelling. I see so many influences across time in her work; it’s as though she’s in an ongoing conversation with artists of the past. It reminds us that no artist exists in isolation, but rather in a rich, ever-evolving dialogue with one another.