Mixed Media & Collage
Garden Tangle Drawings
Ingersoll Commute (selected work)
Ingersoll Commute
(selected work)
For many years I have driven from Woodstock to Ingersoll
Creative Arts Centre on my favourite back roads. Ingersoll
Commute is a series of paintings created from memories and
impressions of moving through that space. Rather than seek
the specifics of any one view or place I have let the work
lead me to these stored interior landscapes.
My paintings continue to evolve and emerge from the multiple
layers of marks, scribbles, scratches and collage. Although
collage is not new to me for this series I have used saved
pieces of past work created during the years of the commute
further unearthing memories of that time and space.
Home
Home
I started this small series in late 2019 as an experiment in
mounting semi-transparent Mylar layers on board. The house
shape which is placed under the top layer suggests to me a
safe place to live, grow, love and create.
The work soon took on a life of its own reflecting the
current stories of historic floods, fires and masses of
people seeking asylum. Perhaps the piece Neighbours at Night
foretold of the isolation we would experience in 2020.
Birdsong (selected work)
Birdsong
(selected work)
My little garden is like a private
oasis bordered by a thick barburry hedge and curved flower
beds surrounding the bird bath and feeder. It's heavenly to
sit in my favourite corner; my book punctuated by the
starting and stopping of the singing birds. The hedge can
host two or three choirs at once. Other feathered friends
call out from on high in surrounding trees. The Bird Song is
almost constant; sometimes with loud chatter, tiny chirps,
or a solitary melody.
This series of drawings/paintings is a celebration of their
gift of song which reminds me that my world is teaming with
life.
Go Figure (selected work)
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Go Figure
(selected work)
The opportunity to use photographic images of Bruce Flower's
figurative sculptures opened a new world of exploration for
me. I have long admired Bruce's dedication to his work and his
mastery of drawing which is clearly evident in his sculptures.
His images capture a moment in time but the emotion they
express is far from static. This feeling lead me to free them
from their fixed position "on the wall" thus having the
figures moving, floating, dancing or flying in a mysterious,
spiritual or dreamlike plane of existence. As I studied
Bruce's images during the months of work I was more and more
deeply touched by the human tenderness and caring he
expressed. I was inspired to surround his figures with
drawings of joyous, angelic moving figures of my own.
Drawing with Photography (selected work)
Drawing with Photography
(selected work)
My use of semi-transparent mylar is
central to the layered creations of this series and to my work
of the past few years. Drawing the viewer into the mysterious
layers creates the experience of searching and discovering
something almost out of reach. Photographic images can be seen
from under a layer of mylar. Veils of colour and drawing marks
on the mylar surface often hide most of the image. The act of
erasing, scratching or sanding exposes the hidden images.
Reworking often takes place until I intuitively reach a
completion.
MEMORIES: China Marker on Photography (selected early work)
MEMORIES: China Marker on Photography
(selected early work)
I began this series of tiny
"intimate', work because I found myself for a time without my
studio space but not without a strong desire to continue
making art that leads me to myself.
The combination of china marker drawing on my own colour
prints has been fascinating to explore because I am intrigued
by all types of mixed media and because I could include
representational elements of patterns and my favourite things
to look at and still satisfy my desire to spontaneously search
with scribbles.
Although most of the objects photographed were not with me in
childhood, something mysterious about them and the finished
drawings, has almost tapped memories from some other time.