DONNA-LEE ELKE paintings: December 2020

Sunday, December 27, 2020

EXPERIMENT IN DISTANCES

In 2020 I sent these pieces of a whole to a number of friends throughout the US and Canada. Each received a piece of a larger painting, framed. I have for many years been experiemting with the idea of: how far apart can a painting that comes in several pieces exist as a whole. Most of the time I did this with triptyches by separating the pieces with a greater and greater distance between them.

This time I separated the pieces by many many many miles. Yet in my mind they remained a whole piece. Each standing on their own. united through origination.

of course, this was only for me ... the gift of the work itself was given ... however, unless an inquiry was made, no explanation was given.

I love the simplicity of the pieces ...

STIX 2018

These pieces were inspired by a drive I took back through the Washington State's Methow Valley in 2014 after another in a series of devastating summer fires. Once I settled into my new studio in Saskatoon I returned to those photos and this was the result. These pieces were the first time I used primarily line and ink. each piece is on ragpaper 23"x30" or 30"x23".

Look closely to see the use of a variety of weights and thicknesses of ink.

DANCERS

Playful images in ink and acrylic paint. 18"x12"

HOVERINGS

HOVERINGS ... named for the posture I took when painting them: hovered over the piece of ragpaper infused with acrylic 24"x18" that laid on the floor. This began my path toward artwork that had more line and less colour. sumi ink brushwork. acrylic paint 2018