Featured Artist - March 2011
Barb McKie
Lyme, Connecticut
[email protected]
www.mckieart.com
For each work I like to take a starting point such as a photograph, a piece of fabric, an idea, a theme or an object such as a stone and let it suggest to me what to do with it. As the creation takes shape, I react to what I see and add as the piece suggests itself to me. As a former scientist, I take an experimental approach, changing one element at a time, and then reacting to the surprises.
As a result of this process, all of my work is original and one of a kind and starts with white fabric. Characteristics of the work include strong texture, contrast, and graphic appeal and either nature’s colors or vibrant color contrasts with a rhythmic movement that comes from an inner musical sense. This is because of my unconscious and conscious choices. Themes involve nature, still life, and people because this is what interests me.
In each work, I like to contrast one thing with another. Realism with abstraction, simple with complex, light with dark, or textured with smooth. Each new piece represents for me a new experiment in combining various techniques of surface design, and I have evolved to the point where most work consists of my own fabrics exclusively.
| Black and White and Poppy 15” x 14” |
Dahlia Reflections 2 |
Purple Petunias |
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