Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Mixed Media



                                            Mixed Media


"Love and Light" Mixed Media   Ruth Hayes
                                   
After years of working in the media of watercolour I still love it.
I love the washes of pure colour, the playful textures, the "happy accidents", the spontaneity, and a hundred other reasons why it seems to be my media of choice. However I started in oil and have always loved pastel and now "works on canvas" seem to be part of the scene and this often includes a mix of several media from watercolour, ink, collage, pastel or acrylic. Mixed Media could be done on paper, canvas, illustration board or wood panel. What can I say  except that it is all such fun. Whatever I want all in the same painting with few rules?
Where I might have hit an impasse with a work in only one medium I can now give it new life and new energy with a coat of gesso,  a few strokes of pastel, a bit of collage, or some torn newspaper. A bit of imagination and risk-taking and a work becomes a dynamic exciting piece that I could not have envisioned when I started.

Art making is truly a journey, and the journey is the excitement of the creative process. Some of my mixed media works will be displayed during the upcoming Beach Studio Tour Oct 23rd, 24th and 25th.