Technique

I begin each piece by creating a collage background of book pages from various sources. I like late nineteenth century and early twentieth century books for their beautiful intricate engravings, drawings and the golden brown paper. I use more modern sources also including: botanical drawings, mechanical drawings, maps, mathematical/geometric drawings, architectural drawings, medical/anatomical illustrations, non english texts, illustrations of ancient cave drawings and other archaeological sites, etc.

Over the collage I paint with acrylic paint, oil sticks, and sometimes water color.  I allow the painting to develop organically. I like to allow the paint to drip and puddle so that the form is truly organic. The pieces usually take on a kind of watery garden, cloud forest, misty luminous surreal dreamscape/landscape quality.

 

New wooden panelsnew wooden panels

 

Pasting book pagesPasting book pages

 

Pages all pastedPages all passted

 

Cutting it out
Cutting out

 

Collage all pastedCollaged, not yet painted

 

PaintingPainting branches

 

A layer of varnish

A layer of varnish

 

Some close upsClose 4

Close 3

Close 2

Close 1

 

Dripping and brushing gold

Dripping Gold 1

Dripping Gold 2

 

More varnish

more-varnish-1

 

More goldDripping Gold 3Dripping Gold 4

 

More Varnish

More Varnish 2