The First Step (in Making Art) / Anna Dominique L. Cunanan

“The First Step (in Making Art)” or simply, “The First Step”, is a 2021 oil painting on canvas that depicts the magic of having the courage to finally do the “first step” in creating art – whether it be picking up a brush, sketching a study, putting up a canvas on one’s easel, or, specific to the scenario in the artwork, opening a bucket of paint. The room in the scene is spacious, cluttered with stretched canvases and painting materials – an art studio – where the main subject in view is a woman opening a bucket of paint. The immediate scene is an attempt to capture a quiet, hot afternoon which is visually set by the bright rays of sunlight coming from the outside, depicting windows that are beyond the view of the painting, and the quietness depicted by the neutral color palette and the use of large spaces.