On a short holiday with my husband in January this year we visited Big Brook Dam in Pemberton, Western Australia. The photo you see below was taken on a short walk trail adjacent to Big Brook Dam and it's my initial reference point for this mixed media work.
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Walk trail alongside Big Brook Dam, Pemberton, Western Australia
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Yes, my artistic depiction in the work in progress below does look a bit different to the photo. Art for me is about playing with materials, applying paint expressively and not about being a master at copying.
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New work in progress
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The paper remnants that I've glued to the canvas to make the background in this work originally appears to have been used to make cutout/stamped shapes for scrap-booking. Closer inspection of the background you will see an assortment of shapes star, feet, people, flower shapes. The path is an old towel, the tree trunks are curtain gathering tape that I found in my sewing box, the foreground is torn up paper doilies. The sky is a curtain/upholstery fabric remnant: compliments of Neil Elliott's collection that he gathered and shared from REmida, my idea of heaven! (REmida is a recycling warehouse in West Perth that I can't wait to go and forage around in).
I'm not sure how the paint will go over the top of these textures, I kinda like it as a collage. There's always the fear that the paint won't grip to the textures that I've experimented with and that it won't work out. I will courageously conquer my fear and apply some paint to this work, hmmm, well, maybe this week after a coat of sealer and perhaps a coat of gesso. I'm enjoying it just the way it is for now, it's the best time when I am in the act of creating - the hopeful moment when the work has so much potential! I like to just stare at it forever and wonder. I hope at some point I'll shall stop staring at it as it is, start painting and show you the completed work soon. Hopefully it will turn out great and won't need to be recycled :-)
