"Mosey's", my acrylic painting of a restaurant, was heavily inspired by the Impressionism movement. My style isn't quite impressionistic, but I used similar techniques in my painting. Additionally, it was inspired by trying to portray a fragment of my childhood through a hazy lens—the brushstrokes capture a sense of whimsy, not quite realistic but not unrealistic either. I was introduced to Impressionism through my participation in the Gadsden Arts Center and Museum's Creative Futures Council. My style was most inspired by watching a more experienced artist paint a landscape in real time—I took mental notes of his steps. I noticed the way he layered the paints and chose which colors to use first, and how he moved his brush. The brushstrokes were less like strokes and more like repetitive slaps against the canvas. I found this technique particularly useful for blending colors together. Once I understood his process, I turned it into my own style. My painting began with a rough blueprint of the perspective of the building. This was the stage I determined where everything was supposed to go, and how each element relates to the others. I started with the darkest values next. Applying the black paint first created a sort of outline for the rest of the piece. Working my way up from there, I continued applying a flat layer of base color for each part of the painting. Once I had the core colors down, I could hone in on smaller details. I started with the biggest areas first, like the walls and the ground. I blended a range of values to add depth. My favorite part of the process was working on details. I found it very fun to see how far I could go to portray the tiniest features, from the signs to the fairy lights. Where my process differed from the painter's was in the size and frequency of the brushstrokes. I found that he focused on mostly using one brush while I used a wide range of brushes to convey detail. "Mosey's" is a tribute to my childhood. The subject of my painting is a restaurant in Panama City, owned by my cousin. I look back on my memories there fondly, filled with loud music and the revving of motorcycles, at a time when I was much younger and life seemed that much simpler. It's all very hazy now, in the way memories are. That haziness was what inspired this piece; I aimed to encapsulate the restaurant from the perspective of my memory.