Samantha French Paints Incredible Large-Scale Underwater Portraits

If only we could paint water so perfectly.

Image via Samantha French

Water is one of the most difficult things to paint but Brooklyn-based artist Samantha French makes it look easy with this awesome portraits. Her oil paintings depict subjects hanging out in and around pools, and many of the portraits are from the perspective of an unseen subject under the water. The way the water refracts light and bounces color around and onto the people is so incredibly accurate, though not to the point of photorealism.

In a statement on her website, French explains that her current series of water paintings are informed by her childhood memories of spending summers at lakes in Minnesota. They are an "attempt to recreate the quiet tranquility of water and nature; of days spent sinking and floating, still and peaceful. These paintings are a link to my home and continual search for the feeling of the sun on my face and warm summer days at the lake."

You can check out more of French's original paintings and prints at samanthafrench.com.

RELATED: 25 Incredible Photorealistic Paintings  

[via Colossal]

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