As part of Delbarton’s annual AP Art Exhibit, we continue our AP Artist Spotlight series highlighting the creativity, curiosity, and experimentation of our senior artists. This week, we feature Luke McLane ’26, whose Sustained Investigation explores the relationship between water and color, and how perception shifts when the two interact.

Luke’s exploration began in junior year Studio Art when he realized that consistent observation and practice directly improved his ability to represent a subject. Water, in particular, became both a challenge and a point of fascination.

“I always struggled with depicting water, which encouraged me to work at it more, and I became more and more interested in how water interacts with the world around it,” said Luke.

That challenge ultimately shaped the foundation of his Sustained Investigation. Luke began by examining how water alters color within a single composition, which led him to refine his guiding question: how can color be illustrated when it is reflected, diffused, or fragmented through water?

To explore this, Luke experimented with a wide range of materials and processes. Acrylic paint became a key medium, allowing him to manipulate water directly within the paint to alter texture and flow. He also expanded his practice through more experimental techniques, including melting snow, paper marbling, and dye-based processes to study unpredictability and movement.

A major part of Luke’s process is the creation of reference imagery. His investigations often begin with constructed experiments, such as spraying ink into water tanks, manipulating hot and cold currents, and digitally combining photographs to capture effects that cannot be achieved in a single moment.

“I hope that people viewing my work take away a new and altered understanding of the many ways water can affect our perception of the colors of the world,” he explained.

Through this exploration, Luke’s work encourages viewers to reconsider something as familiar as water, revealing how it transforms not only the environment around it, but also how we see color itself.

We thank Luke for sharing his artistic journey and perspective, and we look forward to the next AP Artist Spotlight in this year’s series.