“The Girl with the Childlike Mind” is a mixed media oil painting created by Braighlee Rainey. It was painted on a 20”x20” stretched, gallery wrapped canvas in oil paint and pressed flowers from the garden.

This painting was one of the paintings in the series of exploration of the idea of self love and a piece in the body of work I created for my very first solo show in August of 2023. Through this series I hoped to convey the idea of inner peace and love with imagery from my memories and moments I find worthy of documenting that resonate with the word “love”.

I truly believe there are so many ways to love ourselves, through physical actions, boundaries, acts of service, gifts, but the true love comes from within. Once we love ourselves fully, then we are finally able to love others.