The Process

Focusing on a section of Coming and Going, these stages of work illustrate the basic process.  I was inspired by the dramatic and varied spaces of Buttermilk Falls near Long Lake in the Adirondack region of New York. I began with three on-site paintings, a drawing and nine photographs.  These materials were combined in successive stages of digital manipulation and further painting in order to capture the complex nature of my experience.

1. Painting on site provides the underlying spatial structure. A photograph of the painting becomes the base layer in Photoshop.

2.  On top of the base layer, layers added in Photoshop adjust the amount and kind of detail by inserting sections of artworks and photographs. The layer shown here replaces the background. The white areas are transparent.

3. Details from a drawing and a photograph replace parts of the middle ground and foreground.

4. After digital manipulations of the various layers in Photoshop, they are combined and printed on canvas.

5. The work is completed by painting with acrylics on top of the printed image.

A comparison of the full image at the stage of creating the print (first image) and the final art work:

Installed, emerging from the corner.

 

The printing stage for works in the exhibition was done by two individuals on Epson printers with archival inks.  The early works (Opening: Barnum Brook II, The Dreamer and Art Entrance) were printed by Harry Wirtz.  The other 13 works were printed by Kim Lorang of Visual Winds Studio in Schenectady.  I print works that are up to 13 inches wide, such as the smaller versions mentioned in the narratives about each piece.