Carol Munro and Jess Thomas are excited to display their mixed-media art at the Showcase Gallery.
With a variety of different skill sets, the duo is willing to try creating any kind of art, whether it’s a style they already know or something completely new. Although they are both typically painters, they decided to try many mediums for their artwork this time.
“This was just something different. So (we) just thought, oh let’s just do a show and we’ll have those and go for it,” Thomas said, adding she enjoyed trying new forms of art.
“I will say that anything goes. (This)has been such a cool thing because usually we focus on painting. I’ve been painting so much in the last year… so it’s nice to try other things.”
Munro said she enjoyed “coming up with all different colours and patterns” and that it was fun.
Although it was difficult at times because they had not tried certain styles of art before, the women were satisfied with their finished products.
Munro was particularly happy with her finished project, noting she had been saving real leaves pressed between wax paper as well as other materials for years. Some of her pieces were created using pages from various books, including an old dictionary, and she laughed, saying, “I should have checked the words before I put them on. There might be something bad.”
She was also satisfied with how her artwork of a house turned out, saying, “And then I just did this little cutie house.”
Munro decided to include painting in the show as well. She painted a variety of colourful rocks and tried acrylic pouring. “Here for the acrylic pouring you can see what different colours we use and then just how they all come together when you pour them out,” she said. “You can get some really neat patterns and stuff.”
Thomas said that she underestimated how long it would take to do art that she was inexperienced at doing. “That weaving took me four days,” she said, pointing to a woven picture she had created. “It probably took me like 20 hours. Man, props to anybody, any weavers out there because that was tough. That’s a tough thing.”
However, she was pleased with the flowers she made. “This is coffee filters, and I dyed them all, and I painted… This is the thing that I’m most proud of that feels like it was the closest to my vision. This is exactly what I wanted (it) to look like, and it looks the same, which is so rare.”
Thomas said she had stayed up all night before coming to hang the work and was relieved to finally have their art on display.
Despite being mostly painters, the artists said they were proud of their mixed-media work.
“I think that’s the coolest about mixed media,” Thomas said. “You just go ‘like what is the next right thing?’ It’s nice to see all that hard work pay off.”
Their work will be on display at the Showcase Gallery, located at the South Cariboo Business Centre, 475 Birch Ave.
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