Author: kayvassdarling

Tomorrow afternoon there is an opening reception November 15 from 4 pm until 6pm for an exhibit of my landscapes at the Serenity Gallery at St. Mary’s Hospital. There will be refreshments.

Part of the proceeds from sales will go to support the Volunteer Auxiliary which supports the mission of the hospital. For instance, the Auxiliary provides funds for safe discharge which does things like provide a car seat, or a ramp, or whatever may help the patient be safe at home.

Upcoming exhibit at Union Presbyterian Seminary, beginning November 1, 2018, at William Smith Morton Library, 3406 Chamberlayne Avenue, Richmond, Virginia 23227.
https://mailchi.mp/upsem/news-release-0788w105vy-704833?e=1b29da29d7

This painting, “Bridge” will be part of the James River Days by River Renderings in the Skylight Gallery Art Works Richmond Opening this coming Friday.

Still life collages are currently being exhibited at the Massey Cancer Center at Stony Point, Richmond, Virginia.

Small landscapes are currently being exhibited at the Tomahawk Baptist Church in Midlothian, Virginia.

Artist statements are hard for me. Too abstract and too general, and I always end up feeling like I am stating the obvious instead of being deep and significant. It is hard to say something that seems deep and significant when a lot of my art begins with a whim. Something catches my eye, and I have a brief fanciful thought for what might that look like in a piece of art.

I will do one as an experiment.

The next thing you know I have done eight or nine more artworks from this brief encounter with an idea.

This is how the still life collages came to be. The original image was an etching I had done eons ago in college. On a whim I decided to do a collage based on this old etching. I wanted to turn collage on its side so to speak. Most collages are a kind of abstract. I wanted to see what would happen to use paper to create a recognizable image. I did have in the back of my mind the works of the French Fauvists and Les Nabis; interiors and still life works. I have always admired their colors and the ability to take what I normally find to be a rather boring subject and make them interesting.

I do find still life and interiors boring, at least when I have done them in the past.  Maybe it was that when being trained as an artist that is how you started and the goal was to reproduce appearances and when I was younger that did not appeal to me at all. (Still doesn’t really.) But these collage still life pieces I was doing became a way to explore pattern and color; way to deal with abstraction while at the same time have  elements that the average person could recognize.

Where I will be this Saturday. Excited to be leading this “playtime” for adults. Best of all, no worries about grading the finished product.