Hello, and welcome to Field Notes! This blog will be populated with reportings and observations from the North Light book editors working on the CreateMixedMedia site. We’ve been busy getting the site itself up and running, but I’m pleased to finally bring you our first blog entry!
Friday night I had the pleasure of attending an art opening at the AEC in Covington, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. There my friend and colleague Jamie Markle showed his mixed media pieces.
Trained as a fine artist, Jamie’s previous medium of choice was oil paints, but here he exhibited his latest work of mixed media portraits. To make these pieces, he generally creates the backgrounds, collaging and painting them, and even adding some encaustic for texture. He then creates a pencil sketch portrait, finishes it in ink, paints it in fluid acrylics or watercolor and adheres it to a background. The pieces are small in size, 10 x 10-inch canvases or 5 x 7-inch boards. I personally love the bright colors he uses and the depth he gets by creating the backgrounds separately from the images.
At the same event, another colleague, Maureen Bloomfield received a key to the city of Covington as thanks for her work as a jury member for the arts association in Covington. Maureen is the Editor of The Artist’s Magazine, a fine art magazine that includes information on acrylics, oils, watercolors and more.