Texas Inspiration

Cactus; future reference material

Prickly Pear, 20x16, collage on panel with toothpicks

Texas and Arizona have offered some really great cactus imagery which is making me want to do another painting of cactus. I have done a prickly pear from my last trip out west which was over three years ago, and it remains one of my favorite pieces. I think I would like to do a second cactus collage to commemorate this voyage from Florida to Arizona!

Nature's Paintbrush

Purple Mangos

16x12, hand painted paper collage on panel

(top: petrified wood, middle: Sedona Red Rocks)

The second in my series of collages from the road. This is a small piece, very portable and utilized many of my scrap box papers! I pushed the envelope of local color on these mangos as I was inspired by nature's vibrant pallete in the landscape I've been experiencing in Arizona. 

Working in a Small Space

Juicy Fruits

16x12, collage of hand painted papers on panel

Today I finished up working on this juicy orange and started a juicy mango. These are both Florida images; the panels were sketched and under-painted when I left home in the RV last week. I had to bring prepared panels with me in order to make the most of my small space. My husband is a photographer and has been taking some great shots here that I will use for more new work next week when we are at the beach.

Usually I have my entire 10x12 art studio and all of its contents available to me. This week I am working from the RV on this road trip we have taken from Florida to Arizona! (See older posts as to how I packed and color organized my hand-painted papers for my small space). In addition to the packing my hand-painted papers, I transferred both clear gesso and acrylic gel medium to smaller tupperware containers and packed them along with two paint brushes and the plastic cups from my Paas Easter Egg Coloring Kit. These cups nest together and take very little space but work great for washing brushes and watering down fluid acrylics. I brought a few paints in the event that I have to paint some papers for just the right color. If you remember, when we were in Hawai'i I painted all of the hotel literature and used it in my Kona Coffee collage. After all, it's hard to resist literature that is printed on such nice paper!

I am also trying to take advantage of my scrap box. I brought along a shoe boxed size container of all my mid sized paper scraps from previous collages, which offers quite an array of papers in a small container, great for traveling. Be sure to save your scraps!

The first few days on the road I was unproductive as we were driving most of the day, arriving late and leaving early. The past few days we were moving at a slower pace since we reached our destination of Arizona and took time to enjoy the town of Williams and the Grand Canyon.

For this trip I made a point of bringing small panels to work on so that I did not exceed the space I have available to me in the RV. I did bring along a stick easel but I found working at the table or at the counter top was easier than trying to set up an easel. I packed all my supplies under the flip up bed. Luckily the paper can be smushed and crushed to fit into a small space! 

From the Road

The Art of Graffiti and Public Art at Cadillac Ranch 

Amarillo, TX

Our historic route 66 trip so far has been incredible, we have crossed through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico arriving in Arizona yesterday. The sights we have seen have been a treat for the eyes, we took time to stop and take in some museums and route 66 attractions as we push on toward our destination of the Grand Canyon and Sedona, AZ. 

Here you see my kids enjoying the opportunity to leave their own mark with spray paint cans at the famed Cadillac Ranch. This public art arrangement of 10 vintage Cadillacs is the 1974 creation of Stanley Marsh, the helium millionaire who owns the wheat field where it stands, and The Ant Farm, a San Francisco art collective including Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels. The Cadillacs represent the "Golden Age" of American Auotomobiles (1949-1963) and are half buried, nose down, facing west at the same angle as the Cheops pyramids. The piece is a statement about the paradoxical simultaneous American fascinations with both a "sense of place" and roadside attractions, along with the mobility and freedom of the automobile.

Stanley Marsh, the patron of the project, is the local millionaire. He is well known in the city for long time patronage of artistic endeavors including the Cadillac Ranch, Floating Mesa, and Amarillo Ramp, a work of well known land artist Robert Smithson.

Have Paper, Will Travel

Setting Up, Moving Out

Here are the plastic drawers that I normally use to organize my hand painted papers by color in my studio. Obviously too big to travel with, I had to find a way to condense them down but still maintain the division by color.

Save the Scraps!

All of the small teeny weeny pieces of papers that I have go into this scrap box so that I can take them along as well. I hate to waste any papers, even the small bits. This scrap box is not organized according to color, it's very haphazard. If I am looking for even SMALLER  pieces, they rest on the shelf of my easel!