Mixed Media Painting

There is a place where the ocean floor meets the edge of the universe — where bioluminescent creatures drift through darkness like distant stars, and coral formations mirror the geometry of galaxies. Cosmos Subaquatic was born from that threshold, from the conviction that the deepest waters and the farthest reaches of space are not opposites but reflections of one another. I have always been drawn to the spaces we cannot easily inhabit — the crushing silence of the deep sea, the infinite quiet of the cosmos. This painting began as a meditation on those twin mysteries.

I wanted to hold both of them at once, to collapse the distance between what lies beneath us and what stretches above, and to ask whether the awe we feel looking up at the night sky is the same awe a diver feels descending into blue-black water. The answer, for me, is yes. That shared wonder is the emotional centre of this work. Technique: Cosmos Subaquatic is built through heavy impasto application, layering thick acrylic and mixed media to create a richly three-dimensional surface.

The paint is not merely applied — it is sculpted. In the upper right quadrant, raised bubble and droplet formations emerge from the canvas in metallic gold and tan, evoking both the calcified architecture of a living reef and the clustered brilliance of a star field. These textured forms were built up gradually, each layer drying before the next was added, so that the surface carries a genuine sense of geological or organic accumulation — something grown rather than painted. A luminous stream of light blue and cyan cuts diagonally through the composition, flowing from the upper centre down toward the lower middle of the canvas.

This river of colour serves as the painting's spine. It is the current, the corridor, the passage between two worlds. On one side, deep cobalt and royal blue dominate — cool, enveloping, oceanic. On the other, warm tones of crimson and gold assert themselves with an almost volcanic intensity. The interplay between these zones was achieved through deliberate contrast: sweeping, fluid gestures in the blues set against the dense, tactile clusters of the golds, with splatter and drip marks throughout that suggest the unpredictability of natural forces — tidal surges, solar winds, the slow drip of mineral-laden water forming stalactites over millennia. Along the bottom edge, accents of yellow and chartreuse glow like hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, lending the composition a sense of energy rising from below.

Dark navy and black passages create depth, pulling the eye inward, ensuring the painting does not sit flat but instead feels like a window into a space that continues far beyond the edges of the canvas. I want the viewer to stand before this painting and lose their sense of scale. I want them to be uncertain whether they are looking at something microscopic or something vast — a tide pool or a nebula, a single living cell or an entire galaxy in formation. That disorientation is intentional. It is the feeling I chase every time I work: the moment when the familiar becomes strange and the strange becomes beautiful. Follow the cyan current with your eyes. Let it carry you from the cool depths on the left into the warm, glittering territory on the right.

Notice how the gold forms seem to breathe, how the crimson pulses beneath them. Step closer and see the ridges and valleys in the paint itself — the physical topography of the surface, the way light catches differently depending on where you stand. This painting changes with the viewer's position, and that is by design. A cosmos, whether subaquatic or celestial, never looks the same twice. Every painting teaches me something, but some paintings teach me something about myself. Cosmos Subaquatic arrived during a period when I was searching for stillness in the middle of noise — trying to find, beneath the surface of a turbulent time, some quiet and luminous centre. The cyan stream that runs through this piece is that centre. It is the calm passage through surrounding intensity, the thread of clarity I was reaching for. When I look at this painting now, I do not see technique or colour theory. I see the moment I found it.

Reem H. Sultan is an Abu Dhabi based contemporary painter whose richly textured abstract works explore the fluid intersections of femininity, inner strength, and organic movement. Through a masterfully layered use of oils, acrylics, and resin, she translates the complexities of human emotion into evocative compositions that invite deep introspection while balancing a unique sense of power and calm.

NOTE: The image shown is a close up image of the Painting. The 2nd image shows the full painting, with the following images showcasing closeups of the artwork, detailing the work done by the artist.

Painting is signed by the artist

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