Autumn Sky, 14 by 17 inches, Mixed Media on paper
This is a piece I put together on Monday. It rather reflected the autumn day we had here in New England. Though the forecast was for sunny skies, the day was overcast and dreary. I put this together by gluing down and then pulling off sections of magazine pages. I had previously painted a reddish-orange phoenix on the paper as practice for another piece on which I was working. It leant an interesting background as I built up layers of color and texture. I decided to take the color of the phoenix over some of the base I had laid down. I also took away some of the white that was showing though by adding some grey to the background. I felt I wanted to do some stamping and grabbed a rubber tool that is supposed to make a wood grain texture if used appropriately. I used it inappropriately as a stamp! Finally, I took the tree from a large image in the magazine. The color and shape seemed so right. It was a photograph of trees taken in silhouette during sunrise. It was one of many trees but this one was the right one. Once I had added it I felt the overall look was about the sky, which is what my background work had become. I can almost feel a damp blustery wind as I gaze at it.