In The Garden is a combination of painting and collage. Sunny and warm, I made it during the summer of 2014 when gardens were awash with flowers of all colors.
As with so many of my artworks, this one started one way, then took a left turn in the middle. It began as an abstract landscape. You can still see the orange sky and horizon line in the background. The painting got to a point where it didn’t want to be an abstract anymore. It called for something identifiable.
Paintings do that, you know. They tell you what they want.
Since it was already a landscape, flowers seemed the right choice.
I covered over the paint with a layer of tulle (thin mesh ribbon) to tone it down, added handmade paper, across the bottom half to represent the ground, then began the flowers. The petals of the largest flower are torn from an map that was printed in pink, blue and white. I love how the streets and rivers add texture to the petals.
The other flowers and greenery are torn pieces of paper that I monoprinted in an earlier session. Around the edges are bits of blue tissue and green paper. The overall effect is cheerful and lively, full of summer sunshine.
Title: In The Garden
Size: 24 x 24 inches
Medium: Acrylic paint, papers, tulle, tissue, acrylic matte medium
Exhibits: “Trees I Have Known” at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, 52 Weeks 52 Works 2015 desk calendar; “Dreams of Faraway Places“ at the Bexley Public Library