Old School

Acrylic on board, 2011

This is a slightly older painting, based on an assignment where we constructed a collage, then painted the collage as realistically as possible. The only part I was not happy with (and I'm still not!) is the woman's face–I must have re-painted at least 10 times and it's still a mess. The pattern on the left hand side was actually fabric originally, the leaves were real, the woman was cut out of a magazine as were the butterflies. I could have tried to portray the textures that were found in the original but by not trying to capture the sheen of the fabric and paper or dry crispiness of the leaves, the painting seems more of a cohesive image in spite of its fragmentation.

This painting brings back the feeling of fall, even when I see it in other seasons. The leaves not only serve as a reminder but I also find that each individual painting I do holds the memory of the time I painted. The nostalgia surrounding these images for me makes letting go more difficult.