Foreign Currency II

24 x 36″ Watercolor on Ampersand Claybord

This is a favorite painting of mine, because of the lively and complex composition.  Don’t even ask me how long it took me to paint this piece: I couldn’t possibly guess!  My creativity style is to work on a series of paintings instead of just one painting at a time.  That allows me to not get tired of a piece and rush through it: but instead, I shift from one painting to another as my time and energy allows. This gives me opportunity to “live with” an artwork and decided next steps that I will take during the painting process.  With my trade bead series of paintings, this reflection time sometimes it even helps me determine which direction the painting should be viewed! This series of work is my Rendezvous collection: rendezvous coming from a French word brought to the Plains, meaning to come together. During the rendezvous, trappers, traders, and Native Americans would meet annually to exchange goods, stories, and culture.  This painting’s title comes from the fact that the goods traded were a form of foreign currency in this global trade scenario.