I drove to the Oregon Coast this week to deliver art I have recently finished to Volta Gallery in Lincoln City. Queen Anne's Lace, Maiden Hair Fern, gull feathers and seaweed graced their surfaces. Several of these were created on vintage kitchen cabinets from renovated kitchens here in Portland and generously donated to me by the homeowners.
I take the cabinets and sand them down, clean them up from their years of honorable work of storing plates and cooking pots and cans of beans, and give them a new life. The grasses and bits of summer that I so love to collect find a home on these cabinets. I add handmade papers, bits of gold leaf, and make small embellishments with Sumi ink and a crow-quill pen. Following the lines of the grasses and finding my own to intertwine with them.
I love this process and I love seeing the end results. These days I choose mostly whites and light golds to compliment the grasses and flowers that I have gathered.
This delivery was special, as were the pieces that I created to take to Volta. They were created in my new studio space. I recently added a large sliding door that brings in light and fresh air to the cozy studio I am so blessed to have. Such a space I have longed for most of my artist life, making due with corners of kitchens, back bedrooms and other perches.
I send this art out as a blessing to the world, as a gift to the homes and hearts that it will grace. This is what I love to do.... make the art that calls to me, love the things and people that fill me and share my love and my art with the world.
Here are five of the pieces, the first two are on re-claimed cabinetry from Portland kitchens and the other there are on maple board:
Maiden Hair Fern I
18"x28"
Watercolor, Sumi ink, acrylic medium, Unryu papers, Maiden Hair fern collected at Latourell Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, vintage cabinet from kitchen in Portland, Oregon
$725.
Edge of the Forest
18"x43"
Watercolor, Sumi ink, Unryu papers, acrylic medium, ferns and grasses collected in Oregon, vintage cabinet from kitchen in Portland, Oregon
$995.
Queen Anne's Lace I
11"x14"
Watercolor, dyes, Sumi ink, acrylic medium, Japanese handmade papers, Unryu papers, maple panel board, Queen Anne’s Lace collected in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon
$495.
Maiden Hair Fern II
10"x10"
Watercolor, Sumi ink, acrylic medium, Unryu papers, maple panel board, Maiden Hair fern collected at Latourell Falls in the Columbia River Gorge
$325.
Queen Anne's Lace II
5"x12"
Watercolor, Sumi ink, dyes, acrylic medium, Japanese handmade, Unryu papers, maple panel board, Queen Anne’s Lace collected in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon
$225.
Here is a link to Volta Gallery in Lincoln City:
http://www.voltaglass.com/