Annette Heller Mixed Media: 2009

As you have seen from my previous posts, every summer Vito Sisti runs an invited show spotlighting the work of 20 women artists on the East End of Long Island. It is held in Ashawagh Hall (see post from last year's 20 Women show for a history of this famous art venue.) Most of the artists prepare work especially for this show, and I am no exception. With renewed excitement about where my new direction in art was going, I asked my husband, Harry, to prepare two large 48 by 48 inch surfaces on which to paint. Unlike my previous work it was not to be done on canvas, but on luan, a thin "birch like" surface. For specific art works I mounted museum grade paper over parts of the luan. Harry dutifully went out to the lumberyard, cut the pieces to size, attached them together and gave them to me to attach the paper. I was ready to go in a new direction.

It was a warm day in late spring, pollen and tiny moths were falling so I placed one of the surfaces on an outdoor table under a shelter. I prepared the surface, and began dripping various colors, seeing in my mind's eye shapes, forms and color fields. I dripped both continuous paths of enamel, and small drops of enamel. I then poured large fields of bright enamel color to various sections of the painting and the result was exciting and dynamic. Since it takes enamel fields a long time to dry, I left the first piece outdoors until it could be moved. During the hours it was drying some of the pollen that was falling adhered to the paint (luckily no moths adhered.) The resulting painting Pollen in Plein Air (salute to the many artists who work outdoors "in Plein Air) is one of the most exciting of my works. It was the first piece prepared for the "20 Women Show." This is it:

Pollen in Plein Air (48x48)

In a period of one month I turned out a suite of paintings, using different colors and sizes as well as themes. I chose six of these pieces for the show -- what follows is how they were hung and all of the pieces in addition to "Pollen."