Prairie du Sac WRAP Show

The 2019 Prairie du Sac WRAP show ran from mid January through the Workshop Day on March 23. As in the past, the show was hung in the Sauk Prairie School District's River Arts Center which has a beautiful exhibit space with a lot of local traffic.

Kathy Sherwood served as both the show judge and the workshop presenter. Kathy works in Madison as a graphic designer but in her personal artwork she loves to work with soft pastels and especially enjoys portraiture, which is what she demoed during the workshop. We viewed samples of pastel works done on various papers and Kathy shared a wealth of soft pastel information and tips.

Eighteen artists were in the show with two works apiece. I entered two mixed media collages - Jester, which incorporates facial elements from a photo of a Renaissance painting, and Her Eyes Were Too Close Together, based on an original drawing from a live model. Jester was awarded an Honorable Mention.

Announcing: Collage Explorations Exhibit at Sugar Row Gallery

I have always loved to draw, mostly figures and portraits. Then about 15 years ago I took a collage class. When the instructor glued down some collage papers and then PAINTED over them, my mind was blown. It had never occurred to me that you could actually paint OVER collage. I loved it. I was hooked.

Since that fateful class I have experimented with various approaches to collage, from collages that rely on the inherent interest in old papers, to collages that are glazed with layers of acrylic paint, to highly textural collages incorporating 3-D elements, to collages employing acrylic mediums to achieve encaustic effects. But above all, a main objective has been to incorporate my rather representational drawings into decidedly non-representational collages. And to have some fun along the way.

This exhibit represents my explorations into the possibilities of collage.