Gallery Trip

We drove over to Cedar Rapids last Friday and delivered 4 pieces of art to Campbell Steele Gallery in adjacent Marion, Iowa, including this new 10"x10" barn piece. We had dinner and then came back to the gallery for blues music. You can see in this photo (when you click to enlarge it) that the back half of the main floor of the gallery has tables and chairs, lighting and a stage for music performances. The place was full and fun!! Nice to hear music while surrounded by art on all the walls.  :-)

Further experiments

I posted the finished barn piece on my Facebook page and got a lot of feedback there. Most liked the new effect, one wondered if it wasn't too bright white at the edge. I, too, had that feeling, so I did a wash of acrylic over the barn to tone it down a bit and give it an antique feel. I made another rural landscape collage on canvas and its colors seem to work better with the white edge.

Experiment

I have a number of 1-inch-deep canvases in my art cabinet and wondered if there was a way to use them with my new method of working. (I've been using cradled panels since I moved into using strips of imagery as it is easier to work on a solid surface when trying to keep the lines straight.) I roughed up the edges of the three filtrations and then staggered the trim of the strips so the edges are uneven. I might try doing this with a painted canvas, too. Let me know what you think of this method.

Revisiting the Farm

I did a post on August 20th of artwork I made of the farm where my grandmother grew up. That scene was the farm in summer and this one is showing it in autumn. I'm planning to take photos of the farm in winter and spring, too, as the landscape changes so dramatically with the seasons on the midwestern farm.

Paradise

This is a 12" x 12" pieced together memory of a wonderful morning. We were staying with a friend in Paradise Valley, Montana, and a rain storm pelted the windows in the night. When we stepped out onto the porch the next morning, the air smelled like sage and the mountain ranges surrounding us had a dusting of snow shining on their peaks. It was such a magical morning! Now I know why they call it Paradise!

Autumn in Illinois

There is a lake on the north side of my town that is always stunning in autumn. I walked around its perimeter taking photos and decided I liked this view the best. As I layered up the strips of altered imagery, the tree at the right seemed a bit too dark. I put some small strips of leaves and grass from the bottom left into the tree, so I guess I reversed "nature" by putting the leaves back on the tree! It DID help to give that dark tree some more interest. I'm pleased with how the colorful trees on the far shore seem to glow with light. This is another 12"H x 24"W collage on cradled panel.

Tetons

The Teton Range in Wyoming is not like any other mountain range in our country. The Tetons lack foothills or lower peaks which can obscure the view. The range is too young to have had time to erode into soft hills, so the Tetons rise sharply, from 5,000 to nearly 7,000 feet above the valley floor. After driving through Yellowstone, we entered Grand Teton National Park and encountered one stunning view after another. We stopped at the lodge to take photos and were driving down to Jackson Hole when the road turned and it seemed we were going to drive right into the mountain range! We stopped at a little parking lot to take in this amazing view and watch the billowing clouds as they revealed a mountain peak to us and then obscured another. These mountains have been uplifted by geological forces and being in their presence is completely uplifting. This piece is 12"H x 24"W and is titled "Uplifting."