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Running Into the Woods

I love wandering around in little wild spots, whether it’s on the coast, in the mountains or in the Valley where I’ve spent so much of my life – lately I got to spend time wandering in the desert and I loved that, too. (Wow, yeah, that was an unintended biblical reference, but I’ll leave it, read into it what you will…)

 

photo montage

 

But one of my favorite places to wander is in wooded areas, and especially among the oaks here in the Valley and the nearby foothills. Maybe it’s because when the valley heat is like it is now, the woods offer cool respite, shelter and a sense of mystery. The trees can hide whatever development might exist just beyond and muffle traffic that would echo across an open field. And I’m blessed to live in an area where we have little pockets and swaths of wooded areas, often along creeks or rivers, right amongst our city and suburbs, always there for a quick retreat into nature.

 

So when I sat down to consider a theme for a two woman show with my dear friend Michelle MacKenzie, the woods were practically the first thing that popped into my head. From there, you might say I just led her “Into the Woods…” that became our theme, and even the title of our upcoming show this fall.

 

 

I’ve always photographed alot on my wandering in the woods, so I have lots of imagery and of course, I’ve been shooting even more over the past few months preparing for this work. And now I’ve finally starting putting work into a physical form, diving into the deep end, so to speak, with a large 3×5′ reclaimed canvas. (See the previous post for more on that.)

 

These things always happen in several stages, first with sorting through photographs, then starting to envision how things might come together, picking through papers and dried leaves and ephemera. Then adhering the first layer to the substrate, adding texture, starting to add color with pencils and wax pastels, all interspersed with general staring and mulling of the overall composition – this time said mulling included going through a two day cleaning fit – the creative process can be a funny thing.

 

colored pencils

 

At some point when I feel I’ve worked enough details with fine pointed things like pencils, I dive into the painting process, working again in layers – generally transparent – adding more collage layers as planned or inspired. At this point pencils and wax pastels can come into play as well, always after waiting for the last layer to dry.

 

painted

 

At some magical moment it all starts to look right – I try not to envision too much before hand, because that’s when I really screw things up, but more I try to keep my ideas very general. With this piece I was keeping the color palette in my head (which I’ll try to keep for the whole show) and then follow the cues of light from the base photographs.

 

finished

 

I’m calling this “New Day” but more about that another time…

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