‘mixed media’

Technically, pretty much all of what I do can be considered “mixed media” – but here I am including work that doesn’t fit into the categories of “collage” or “digital landscape”.

To start with, these are a series of pieces I did starting out with canvas, oil paint and brushes – which is NOT something I normally do. I suppose part of it was with the idea of “catering to market demands for ‘oil on canvas’” – but in the end, that didn’t work out very well – beads, ceramic pieces and twigs got added – and the market “failed to respond”… but in fact, I had a great time making them, sitting out in what passes for my back yard next to the oleander tree on the border of the property, and then finishing the pieces up in the studio. A few of them are hanging in our living room now, and, as always, it seems, they work better in multiples.

The largest piece is actually 2 pieces hanging together:

Last month, I put together a presentation for a hotel looking for some artwork (still haven’t heard back), and so I gave all the pieces new names (I had to label the JPEGs). I called this one “Blue and Green”. If you look carefully at the Green piece, you can see where the branches (those are real pieces of olive and tangerine driftwood, covered in metal leaf) cast their reflections on the wall (since in this ‘painting’ the only ‘painting’ is on the ‘frame’…).

After I finished that (those?) piece(s?), I bought some small, already-prepared canvases at our local stationery store that caters to ‘ladies who attend courses’ – but somehow, no matter how I tried, I could not end up with your traditional ‘oil on canvas’.

Each of the following pieces has either a shelf underneath it for objects to rest on, or a ‘shelf’ on top for objects to hang from. (Below each piece is a detail enlarged to life-size.)