Arielle and Lilly

Arielle and Lilly, January 2026, acrylic on canvas, measuring 5’x3’

This painting began the moment Drew Hixson encountered a photograph of his friends’ wedding day. The image carried an immediate gravity, a sense of intimacy and certainty that asked to be held longer than a photograph allows. Though the original photograph was taken in daylight on Block Island’s beach, Hixson chose to translate the moment into night, allowing the scene to exist in a quieter, more ritualistic space.

Above the figures, a waxing crescent moon appears at 27% illumination, marking September 27th, the date of Arielle and Lillie’s marriage. The moon functions as both a timestamp and a symbol, anchoring the painting in cycles, intention, and continuity. While the painting depicts two women in love on their wedding day, Hixson imagines them as witches practicing the ultimate spell: love sustained through commitment. Their union becomes not only romantic but elemental, woven into earth, tide, and sky.

The figures are painted in their familiar, instinctual posture, Arielle seated on Lillie’s knee, a position that reflects comfort, trust, and embodied knowing. This gesture resists formality in favor of truth. They are not posed for spectacle, but held in presence.

Color plays a central role in shaping the emotional atmosphere of the work. Ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow are layered directly onto the surface rather than mixed on the palette, allowing light and pigment to interact optically. These colors move between warmth and coolness, shaping the night air, the skin tones, and the luminous white of the dress. The figures appear to emerge from the landscape, their bodies carrying both the warmth of living flesh and the cool glow of moonlight.

The painting was built through a slow process of layered pigment, mirroring the way relationships are formed not through singular moments but through accumulation. Each layer holds time, attention, and care. Measuring three feet by five feet, the scale invites the viewer to stand with the figures rather than observe them from a distance, creating a space where love feels practiced, intentional, and enduring.

In this work, Hixson reframes a personal celebration into a quiet act of devotion, where love becomes ritual, and commitment becomes magic.