departure

I seem to work in cycles. After playing with abstracted images in my Edisto series, I have returned to my familiar mountain landscapes with the aim to take them beyond the literal. This is something I have attempted in the past with watercolor but this time I am exploring other water media as well.

So these two pieces are the first in this exploration. I began with a scene in mind and a few sketches where I focused on what is most interesting to me about the landscape- the movement of the undulating hills receding into the distance, defined by the lighted and shadowed areas.

Both of these works are approximately 8 x 11 inches on acrylic paper. I used water soluble graphite, Inktense blocks, Neocolor II watercolor crayons, Lyra Aquacolor crayons, gesso, and some acrylic paint. Pretty much anything I could think of to throw at it just to see what would happen! This is a departure from what I have been doing with watercolor for the past several years and I find the novelty of working in an unfamiliar way energizing as break from routine and the predictable.