John 5:22-24

Presently I'm working on a project for a group show in Calgary based on John 5:22-24. I wanted to work with layers and a bit of depth so I decided on a Retablo, a type of devotional painting that combines media and usually has a shallow shelf. 

This is what I have started with. Gerald cut the plywood for me and which I then coated with wood glue and acrylic gel to seal it to prevent the lignin in the wood from drastically altering the photos I intend to collage. As an after though it may have been interesting to watch the piece alter and change rather than be preserved though. Must keep that in mind for the next one.

An image of water, refreshing water running over colored rock is collage on the door panels. The photo taken last summer in Redrock Canyon was duplicated and then flipped in Pages to further abstract the image. So in all, on each door panel the photo is duplicated four times.

My substrate is thin 1/4 inch plywood panel.

Here is the Redrock photo I duplicated. Last summer I was seeking the beauty of the abstract in nature.

The triangular part of the main panel is painted blue with black washed over. The center square strips are layers of red and blacks washed thinly one atop the other with a little wiping here and there.

On the inside door panels fire is represented; cleansing fire. I played with images in Pages as I cannot for the life of me figure out photoshop elements yet. On the left a chickadee in flight collage into a sunset image. The image was to fill the wood panel but the printer did not translate the size and printed it much smaller than I requested. As I have no more of the same thin watercolor paper I decided to work with the image as it was and tore back the edges. Layers of acrylic reds were then applied and subsequently wiped with a rag, then black applied and wiped back, then another red to get to this stage. The right hand panel is an image of fire layered over a sunset image. I love the bird shape produced by the flame and felt it would compliment the chickadee on the left. A red band which will later will be painted gold runs down the right hand side.

More to come, enjoy your day and share a smile.