Acrylic Paint on "Fredrix Artist Canvas Panel."

Through this piece, I aimed to capture the joy we all felt swinging on the monkey bars. To me, that single action represents childhood as a whole. The liberating feeling of being above the ground made our palms sweaty and our hands hurt from gripping the bars, yet whenever we go to parks, we are drawn to the monkey bars. The subject in this painting is my cousin at the age of seven. The nature surrounding her symbolizes an afternoon of play; I used a lot of green in my painting to represent a new beginning or springtime. I felt that acrylic paint was the best medium for this portrait, as I wanted to maintain a loose and painterly style. This painterly style was essential for conveying the simplicity of childhood. The setting of the painting deliberately does not include a fancy park or elaborate play structures because childhood joy is captured in doing simple things, like swinging on monkey bars.