MAPS

It seems that for the moment, I have found my new "subject" to create.  Maps.  It didn't start out that way, and maps were never my intention.  But, I have come to really love creating them.  It has come to be something that means more than I anticipated it would.  Something about the maps of different coastlines is inspiring.

I love doing the research.  Finding the right coastline/land mass to mimic is important.  It has to leave an interesting negative space.  But more that an aesthetic thing, it has to make me say "I want to go to there"

Figuring out the colors is an adventure as well.  Did you know how beautiful rust could be?  I didn't either.  It is super colorful if it comes from colored/painted metals to begin with.  It can be so much more than brownish reds and oranges.  When I discovered images of colorful rust, I fell in love.  They made me want to just paint, paint, paint.  

One of my favorites parts of the paintings to create are the oceans/waters that surround and cut through the land masses.  I love taking the blues and greens and purples on my watercolor palettes and making them become this powerful force and giving them life.

​The end result is so satisfying to me.  The paintings remind me of a cross between a mosaic and an old map.  Perhaps they are mosaics of maps.  Sometimes they are hard to create because I do have wanderlust and I can imagine myself hiking and wandering these coastlines and shore lines.  I can feel the breeze on my face and smell the water in the air.  I guess for now they can curb my appetite to go to there, but one day...

I hope my viewers enjoy them as well.  I hope they can see not only the layers of watercolors and the hints of ridges that are physically on the canvas, but also can see themselves lost in these places I am creating.