Here are the newest collages I’ve created in May and June. Enjoy! email for more information, pricing and availability.
Just completed framing three, hand painted monotypes of our cottonwood tree. I’ve been documenting the tree year-round for over a year to use as reference, usually when the light is special, or there is something about the architecture of the tree I enjoy seeing. She is majestic, old, and home to at least three families of squirrels, and possibly flickers and/or woodpeckers. The orioles have not nested their for several years, but I have seen them investigating this week.
Cottonwood Triptych
12″ square, framed. Artwork 5″ x 5.25″. Monotype with hand painting.
Cottonwood Dark
12″ square, framed. Artwork 5″ x 5.25″. Monotype with hand painting.
Cottonwood Fog
12″ square, framed. Artwork 5″ x 5.25″. Monotype with hand painting.
Cottonwood Sunsrise
12″ square, framed. Artwork 5″ x 5.25″. Monotype with hand painting.
Here I am, in my studio, posing with artwork (and my studio companion, kitty Sham-wow-Velveeta) that is ready to be delivered to Abbey Lane Gallery at the end of the month. More trout-inspired paintings, collages and one landscape. Enjoy!
Me with artwork that is ready to be delivered to Abbey Lane Gallery, Creede, Colorado
Me with a new landscape painting and wall of art.
I received two photos yesterday of my newly framed artwork hanging in the purchasers home. Thanks for sharing Tom and Denise!
Spring is surely around the corner! I am delighting in painting and making collages to remind me of the joy I find while trout fishing, in the sunny Colorado mountains-or the rain, or snow, in spite of which I still have a good time. Here are the latest paintings and collages for your enjoyment.
Pearl Buck
Spring II
Spring
September
Rio Grande Cattle Pen II
Rio Grande Cattle Pen
Pearl Buck II
Ute Summer
Spawn II
Spawn
I understand it is warmer in Creede than Lawrence right now and that my neighbors there are biking and fishing! Here are my latest pieces of artwork to remind me that warmer temperatures, trout fishing, hiking and enjoying seeing the poppies in Creede will be here soon. Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day! Email me for more information and price of artwork.
Box Canyon Bow, unframed, 7″ x 5″-SOLD
Box Canyon Trout, unframed, 7″ x 5″-SOLD
Winter’s End Trout, unframed, 7″ x 5″-SOLD
Spruce Tree, unframed, 7″ x 5″-SOLD
Stream, unframed, 7″ x 5″-SOLD
Spring Rainbow, unframed, 10 1/2″ x 7″
Creede II, unframed, 7″ x 5″
Creede, unframed, 7″ x 5″
Jim’s Brown, unframed, 7″ x 5″
I love to go fishing in small streams in Creede, Colorado. The streams are no wider than 10-15 feet at the most, have shallow gravel beds, muddy beaver ponds, deep pockets of water in the bends, are hidden yet open, undulating between wide and small, swift and placid, tangled and free.
Foliage touches surfaces of the water, grass drapes into it, providing shelter for the trout in the undercuts. The colorful willow tree with its narrow leaves contrast with pointy texture against the dense spruce and pines, leaves and bark change throughout the seasons, from silvery gray, to bright yellow new growth, dense saturated green leaves changing to bright yellow.
The water is clear, bright, ice-cold, sometimes so much so that ice hangs off the willow branches that dangle in the water in early Spring. The rocks below the surface are mostly naked, devoid of moss, sometimes with branches tucked between them from a frustrated fisherman tearing off a fly eater branch or from the trimmings of a beaver. Deadwood wedges in as well from the spring runoff, and lay among a huge variety of textured, colored, boulders and smaller rocks, spotted, stripped, silver, gray, red, blue-green with an occasional fleck of metallic silver, or gold floating in the gravely sand between them.
I really love that I am able to see easily; the decorative bottom of the streams; the fish rise, turn and hit just feet from me, the sun dancing, glinting and sparkling in the water, the reflection of grass and trees wiggling on the surface, a glimpse of the intense blue sky glimmering between the shadows of the pines, cast among the rocks and the spots of a fish turned on its side. All thrown together in a moment.
These collages are capturing my viewpoint, looking into the stream from above. Just add the sound of water, and a tug of a fish on a line.
Created by carefully tearing up my paintings, and placing them in compositions to form a collage.
Framed size 12″ x 12″. Price: $225. Contact me for more information.
Shown below are photos of two more paintings I completed while in Creede, Colorado these past few weeks. The framed May Brown, Ute is shown displayed on a table top, although it is wired to be hung. It measures, 16.25″ x 13.25″ framed. The artwork is 10″ x 7″.
Purchase from me directly for $275.00
The “James” Brown is a large painting, unframed and measures 14.75″ x 21.75″.
(Shown below the large paintings is a photo of James, the trout. Unfortunately, I snagged him as he turned away from my fly, but he was released none worse for the wear.) Purchase from me directly for $250.00
May Brown, Ute
May Brown, Ute
James Brown
“The” James Brown
Delivered my new paintings to Abbey Lane Gallery in Creede, Colorado! These are painted in gouache, a water based paint, mixed with interference acrylic paint which has a metallic iridescence to them. The metallic shows up when viewed at different angles and light. Very pretty but very hard to capture in a photo.
The first two shown below are twice the size that I’ve been painting. I have not taken exact measurements, but the paintings themselves are approximately 10″ x 8″. They are 16″ x 12″ framed.
The rest of the paintings are approximately 5″x 7″ and are in a 12″ x 12″ frame.
Please contact Cheryl at Abbey Lane for purchase.
Creede Trout, 16″ x 12″ , $325-SOLD
SOLD
Ute Cutbow, 16″ x 12″, $325
Ute Trout, 12″ x 12″, $195 SOLD
Shallow Brown, 12″x12″, $195-SOLD
Shallow Brown
At the end of my fall in Creede, I went fishing at Buck Creek with my husband and three dogs, Dolly, Molly and Max. Molly, sadly, is no longer with us. We hiked in a few miles to Buck Creek. She had a wonderful day, following me in the stream, close behind but not crowding me, out of the path of the fly line, watching carefully for every fish I caught. She was about 13 years old, a lab mix. And, her adopted name was “Blue”. She was adopted for my in-laws, who changed her name, and she was returned to us when they passed. Blue all around; my pet, my loss, the trout, and the skies.
Blue Sky Brown I
Blue Sky Brown II-SOLD
christine mercer kraft / fine art 