Assemblage Art

Here is my first assemblage piece. Made from the gifts given to us from our foreign exchange students from Japan in the year 2001 when they came to visit us. All those bits of beautiful things they brought us stayed in a drawer, never to see daylight. It was a shame really. Now with assemblage art, where you put together a piece of art with recycled materials and odd bits of unique things, you can salvage and use these old treasures and bring them to light again.
This piece is three dimensional and multilevel-ed inside the box.
come down to the Gallery at 16 main in Madison to get a better look at it.

Cruciform Abstract on the Easel

Here is one example of one style of abstract that I was learning. This is in the Cruciform style. There are a lot of considerations to take into account when building this form. This one is not finished and is still under construction. Some of the considerations for the cruciform are that all the corners be different, and that there be an area of slight interest and I think I've begun that with the ink in a circular motion in the center of the form. Also, the form itself shouldn't be to straight forward in it's shape and design. Mine is here. I have some plastic wrap in the upper left corner drying with some paint to add a pattern in the paint. I'm still very elementary with my instruction yet. I have introduced many textures and colors for interest so we shall see in the future how this painting morphs!

New Works and Ideas

I was recently invited to attend a workshop taught by the woman posed in between myself and my friend here , Joan Blackburn. She is one of the most gentle spirited teachers yet boldly honest in her appraisals of your artwork during class which I greatly valued. She taught watermedia abstracts. Abstracts in the classical sense. I had no idea there were so many considerations in building and an abstract piece! Well I have no art training to help me or build upon in class as a base of knowledge so the one thing I do know is educate yourself! I struggled to keep up but enjoyed every moment at the same time. Joan poured fourth her knowledge , no holds barred. I came away a rich and more expansive person.

Winter Birch

This painting is an oil on canvas, 16"x20". It's framed in the actual barn wood from our barn that was lovingly taken down this past summer to make room for a new one. My husband saved some of the wood to make frames for just such an occasion as this! So.... I did the painting and husband did the frame from our old barn. A"True" family affair! hehe.

Indian Falls

The Ta-Da moment has arrived and the painting is finally finished!
20"x30"x1 1/2 , acrylic on canvas.
Indian Falls

On the Easel

This is another couple of new paintings I've been working on with this new technique of very thin layers of highly tinted acrylic paints. I have been simply randomly placing color on the canvas, wetting it down with a water spray to let it run and get drippy, then let dry.
upon gazing at the dried canvas, the images of what's to be painted on the canvas sort of just appears on it's own if you let it. I begin to see what the canvas is telling me and I paint that out. With the first one I saw a sunset beach and just let that happen. On this second one I saw a magical land mass in the sky with it's own sunset, below that a snowcapped mountain range feeding into a lake and below that even a a painted Arizona-ish style landscape. So much to see! In any case, this one is not finished as I can still see an American Indian's head and shoulders in a waterfall under the floating landmass in the sky. Do you see it?

Birds in Paradise

Newest painting coming off the easel.... 20"x24' acrylic on canvas, "Birds in Paradise".
I really got into doing this one. It's a whole new technique for me , completely different style from the past. I hope to explore many more like it in the future!
Whaddya think? You like it?