In July 2015 while travelling with my family to Antigua, Guatemala I happened upon an entirely new and exciting direction for my art. As we were exploring old town Antigua, an area of about eight square blocks, I noticed the morning light hitting one of the old, weathered, and colorful walls of the 500-year-old town. I zeroed in very closely on one postcard-sized section of the wall with my smartphone and snapped a few photos. I quickly became fascinated with the results. Within these beautifully seasoned walls were thousands of compositions of color and texture. Some of the shops were painted brilliant lime, pink, purple and aqua blue. Next door, another shop wall was deteriorating, colorful layer upon layer of peeling paint, chunks of plaster fallen out, quickly repaired and repainted over many years.
Over the next 2 weeks I became obsessed with these walls, taking hundreds of unique photos with my smartphone, with morning, afternoon and evening light highlighting their amazingly diverse array of textures and colors. When I returned home and looked more closely at the photos, I discovered many stunning and inspiring landscape compositions that called out to me to recreate them as large-scale paintings. Antigua Wallscapes were born.
To honor the unique story of each piece, I construct canvas panels wrapped in Belgian linen and use tools and brushes that the shopkeepers in Antigua might have had on hand to repair, plaster, and paint the walls. I use acrylic paint in pure pigments then freely add dirt, sand, straw, pine needles, coffee grounds, marble powder and texture with rope, screens, boards, sea sponges, foam, plastic wrap – and whatever else works. I apply layer upon layer – sanding, removing, reapplying and cracking washes of iridescent color until I reach finish. Like the original walls that inspired this work, each Antigua Wallscape has its own story to tell. I look forward to continuing to explore how these beautiful images of history, human interaction and the passage of time can inspire us to look at our world with fresh eyes.
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In July 2015 while travelling with my family to Antigua, Guatemala I happened upon an entirely new and exciting direction for my art. As we were exploring old town Antigua, an area of about eight square blocks, I noticed the morning light hitting one of the old, weathered, and colorful walls of the 500-year-old town. I zeroed in very closely on one postcard-sized section of the wall with my smartphone and snapped a few photos. I quickly became fascinated with the results. Within these beautifully seasoned walls were thousands of compositions of color and texture. Some of the shops were painted brilliant lime, pink, purple and aqua blue. Next door, another shop wall was deteriorating, colorful layer upon layer of peeling paint, chunks of plaster fallen out, quickly repaired and repainted over many years.
Over the next 2 weeks I became obsessed with these walls, taking hundreds of unique photos with my smartphone, with morning, afternoon and evening light highlighting their amazingly diverse array of textures and colors. When I returned home and looked more closely at the photos, I discovered many stunning and inspiring landscape compositions that called out to me to recreate them as large-scale paintings. Antigua Wallscapes were born.
To honor the unique story of each piece, I construct canvas panels wrapped in Belgian linen and use tools and brushes that the shopkeepers in Antigua might have had on hand to repair, plaster, and paint the walls. I use acrylic paint in pure pigments then freely add dirt, sand, straw, pine needles, coffee grounds, marble powder and texture with rope, screens, boards, sea sponges, foam, plastic wrap – and whatever else works. I apply layer upon layer – sanding, removing, reapplying and cracking washes of iridescent color until I reach finish. Like the original walls that inspired this work, each Antigua Wallscape has its own story to tell. I look forward to continuing to explore how these beautiful images of history, human interaction and the passage of time can inspire us to look at our world with fresh eyes.
