I’ve spent the past year working on paintings for a solo exhibit (up through 9/29 at Gallery at Marina Square in Morro Bay) entitled “Dreams of Africa.” Although I’ve never been to Africa, I’ve known many wonderful Africans; taught works of African literature; and appreciated the music of a plethora of African musicians. Long story short, eventually all these experiences with things African were bound to surface in my art. (In fact, I think I lived a previous life in Africa!)
Perhaps my most planned painting in this series – I call it a “mixed-media bricolage” – is “Place du Marché” (marketplace). I wanted to do a piece that evoked the cacophony, the color, the dusty and rusty, discordant, haphazard feel of a marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa. At least, that’s the way it appeared to my mind’s eye!
I worked a long time on this piece, painting papers and collecting items that would help convey my idea of such a marketplace, trying to plan out just the right composition and arrangement of items and colors. It slowly evolved, until finally one day it just felt finished.
The early stages involved just playing with previously painted papers on top of my wood panel, trying to decide which ones might be “keepers” for this piece.
I then collaged pages from a French novel onto the panel, then played with and arranged pieces of tissue paper on this surface. This gave me the backdrop for determining the rest of the composition. As I placed the disparate components, I paid special attention to using color and black lines to move the viewer’s eye around the composition—essential so as to give some coherence to the otherwise wildly incongruent elements.
