Springbank Artists VIP Trail Contest – Painting in Progress

The painting process for most visual artists starts with a blank canvas.

I like starting with a blank canvas. At this point there are endless possibilities. Creativity can take over and you can have a plan or not.

I am primarily a collage artist. I paint with paper. I use both paper that I have painted myself and also interesting Japanese and other printed paper that I have found in art stores and interesting paper places. So to begin the painting process I start with looking through my papers and decide what might work with the vision in my mind and the reference photo on hand. Rarely do I stick with all my initial choices but it is a good starting point.

Then the fun begins. I start adhering the paper to my support.

I keep adding paper until I am happy with the color choices, pattern activity and until it conveys my original idea.

With this painting I want to capture the ‘lifecycle of leaves’ including all the colors we encounter in each of the seasons.

To see my finished painting, join me on March 23^rd from 7:00 until 9:00 for the Opening Night of Springbank Artists Annual Show and Sale including the unveiling of contest paintings.

Many more layers of paper were added to my painting before I considered it to be done. I added individual leaves along with some chickadees. I have called the finished painting ‘Trail Life’ and the dimensions in inches is 18x24 and it was completed on board vs. canvas.