High Tide

"A young girl, transfigured by Italy! And why shouldn't she be transfigured? It happened to the Goths!"
-E.M. Forester, A Room With A View

I have been busy this week. Lots of scattered collage bits and paints on my table. I feel energetic with the pulse of Summer Solstice and the incredible "supermoon" that's out there waxing, no less powerful than the Sun.
Can you feel it drawing you? She will be full tonight.

The mixed media projects on my table are part experiments, and part goal-driven pieces. My main project is still in progress so I'll share one of the former exercises for now.

My "Letter from Venice" tag has an Artist Cellar Venice map stencil as the background. I am taking some baby steps with lettering with an actual calligraphy pen like Jill K. Berry taught me at a workshop in February. (Shout out to you lovely Paperworks artists in Tucson.)

Once I laid out the map, I knew I had to dig out some ephemera with Italian words and the whole letter-writing theme is a serendipity. The color palate that I worked with is earth, ochre, and aqua. I can just picture an afternoon in late June with the sun beating down on the canals. It could be a pleasant afternoon sitting at a cafe sipping coffee, reading a good book or a letter from home. Ah, the life of the expat in Italy.

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For the curious artists: I stenciled the street map and masked off that lower section. The stencil is done with tea dye Distress Stain over gesso. The bottom third is colored with cantaloupe dye ink and the accent lines are yellow ochre Golden Glaze.