Bay Area Fall Colors

Yesterday painting (9″x12″, acrylic on paper).  Inspired by a little fall color this week after a drive up to the top of Mount Diablo with an afternoon hike around the peak.  80°, golden hills and a bit hazy — waiting for the winter rains.  I love the Bay Area, but October is the one month I still miss New York State and New England —just a little bit.

ATCs of Palette and Place

Yesterday’s outgoing mail included my latest series ATCs.  In this series, the Collagescape idea that I began with in 2014 takes another direction.  There are eight different designs in the series.  Each design shows different place that has been reduced to four individual colors.  The colors are used to represent a certain place and, in some cases, a time of the year.

Mount Diablo Collagescape

Mount Diablo, mixed media on board, 10”x8” and repurposed, vintage frame overall 14”x12”

Even after a dry winter, Mount Diablo is the land of California Poppies right now.  Perhaps not as green as most springs, but it’s still quite impressive.  I got out there last week to see some spring wildflowers and the natural recovery after last year’s massive wildfire.  As always, Mount Diablo did not disappoint. 

Wanting to stress that collagescapes are as much paintings as collages, I plan to place some of them in more traditional frames.  But this piece is not framed per se.  Rather, the repurposed, vintage frame is now part of the piece – they are meant to stay together permanently.  The frame itself was a bit beat up, garbage picked a few years ago and now recycled which is fitting as so much of my art has always included recycled materials.  The verdant California spring with bursts of poppies in a gold frame is also a nod to two great California artists – Arthur and Lucia Mathews. 

This piece will be shown in my collagescape exhibit opening July 29.