Title and description of exhibition: “Stuff Of Earth” - Varied work and media, celebrating the natural world both as subject matter and as tools and media in the creative process: drawings, paintings, collages incorporating found objects such as sticks, leaves, berries, grass, earth, flowers and more.
One of my favorite things I did during the summer ahead of the show was finger paint with mud: various samples of earth with different hues, including charcoal and ash from the fire pit, mixed with acrylic medium as a binder.
I also played with 'painting' with leaves and flowers scrubbed on bristol board, most from my prairie garden, then rendering the garden views itself using those plant offerings.
These colors were often surprisingly different from the appearance of the plant parts. How they hold their color over time will be interesting to see. These particular works may not be stellar artwork, but the process was a stellar experience.
I also created some new, smaller collages for this show, focusing on use of sticks, weeds, seeds and leaves as components with the various torn papers.
Here is a sampling of these experimental works included in the show: