New Direction

Series of work created at my retreat last week. "Sound of the River", 1-4.
Each canvas 24x24", Mixed media. 

 For me, part of the lure of going on an art retreat, like the one I was just at, is the potential for learning something new and exciting. This one wasn't quite as far outside my comfort zone as the last one I did, but it was a good opportunity to do something different under the guidance of an artist with a different aesthetic. The weeklong workshop gave me uninterrupted creative time, and Steve Rose gave me some great new tools to work with. Last week I posted photos of the location, this week I thought I'd share what I did while I was there.

Our only real requirement for the week was that we work in multiples. He was aiming for a diptych/triptych kind of thing, but he got more of a series from me. They go together, but they don't necessarily have to stay together. I've got these ordered more or less how I produced them, although I worked on them all at the same time, working on one while another was drying. Right near the end of the week I had a hilarious conversation with one of the other participants... she hadn't actually realized I had 4 canvases on the go. She thought I had been painting over the same one day after day. And she wasn't alone... a couple others had thought the same thing!

"Sound of the River | 1"  24x24" Mixed Media on Canvas

"Sound of the River | 2"  24x24" Mixed Media on Canvas

"Sound of the River | 3"  24x24" Mixed Media on Canvas

"Sound of the River | 4"  24x24" Mixed Media on Canvas

You can see I was getting bolder by the day. The first one is pretty much paint with a bit of texture medium added here and there. By the end I was attaching stuff, troweling on drywall compound and using found objects to print with. If you click on them you will get a bigger image... you can see it better. I haven't decided yet if I actually like these or not, but I really did have fun making them.