Desert Sunset
pastel
Anne M. Bray
Anne M. Bray’s Road Trip pastels celebrate fleeting moments captured on the road and frozen in time.
What goes into making work like yours?
My steps for creating my Road Trip pastels:
1) I get in the car and drive off.
2) I shoot digital captures when I see something that catches my eye (while driving).
this set of captures was shot in about 10 minutes
3) I edit my favorite shots and get them printed as glossy photos at Walgreens.
4) I crop the photo with tape, if needed.
5) I clip bristol paper to foam core on top of some large gridded paper
6) Holding the photo in my hand, I plot the general composition: sky, ground.
7) I start applying chalk pastel in large swaths and smear and smooth with my hands.
8) I work in color sections and do the sky first before any mountains or foreground. (I don’t want the dust from the sky getting on the lower parts). I smudge with my hands a lot. I do NOT use fixative. Fixative ruins my pastels because of the many many layers of pigment.
9) Done! I remove the drawing and grid paper from the foam core and tape both with a cover sheet. I keep these all together until I get the piece to my framer.
Who are some artists, contemporary or historical whose work you like?
Hudson River School, Whistler (the dark landscapes), Rebecca Campbell, Danielle Eubank, Paul Klee, Nancy Monk.
How did you end up becoming an artist?
I've always been an artist. One thing that helped shape my vision was growing up with original oil landscapes painted by various relatives. Also, when I was five or six, my grandfather would sit and doodle with me - we would both work on a sketch and pass it back and forth.
What do you like/love about being an artist?
For me, the best thing about being creative is that when I'm truly involved with
my work, I go into a whole different place that is not of this world.
What projects are you working on right now?
At TAG, I like to show every year to justify my membership dues. Since I also have money jobs, my art time is limited. I work in series and have many going on simultaneously. One big project still in the planning stage I call "On the Edge." My concept is to circumnavigate the contiguous US states that border the Pacific, Mexico, the Atlantic, and Canada. I will drive as close to the edge as the highways allow and will shoot video out the passenger side window. I will make incremental stops along the way and do work based off the video feed.
Name something you have done or that has contributed to your art career?
I've had residencies at four different art colonies -- unstructured time away
from home to concentrate on getting work done. I've had four sessions at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula, CA which almost functions as a studio for me. Almost all of the pieces in this show were created at colonies.
Anne M. Bray's exhibit, Road Trip opens October 5, 2010.
No comments:
Post a Comment