In the Studio with…
Phyllis Elrich, Boca Raton Branch (Florida)

 

Visual Delight

By Lucy Arnold, Art Editor

 

As a retired educator, Phyllis Elrich, Boca Raton Branch, believes in learning new things. Classes, traveling, and meeting new people enrich her life and expand her horizons.

“Learning is life. Doing new things makes life more interesting,” she says.

Her artistic journey has taken her from painting to baked clay sculpture, bead-making, and wearable art to her current pursuit in mixed media collage.

Beads, costume jewelry, threads, matchsticks, cutouts from old paintings, even dryer lint show up in her collage work. A recent commission was for a “light, airy, black-and-white with a drop of red” piece. Elrich decided that texture was the way to make it come alive. She used bubble wrap, paper towels, wire mesh, scrunched paper, beads, heavy paint with a combed technique, and thin lines of black paint to make it work. Both artist and client were delighted with the result.

Elrich began “Lips” by applying both pumice and bead gels to the canvas in places. She then brushed on Golden’s white acrylic paint in thick, random strokes, using a comb to add further texture. While that dried, she used black, white, and red paint and beads on newsprint, and “went a bit wild on it.” She cut out pieces that pleased her. She also cut up pieces of bubble wrap and painted them white.

“In the manner of Lea Krasner, wife of Jackson Pollack, I gently threw the pieces onto the canvas, moving them around a bit until I was satisfied with the balance. Elmer’s Glue dries completely clear and holds items forever. I have used it for years,” she says.

Elrich wiped her brush on a paper towel and saw what looked like lips. This, too, became part of the collage.

After several days, she decided the composition needed connection. Placing the canvas on the floor and imagining lace candy, she danced a bottle of black acrylic paint over the piece, creating just the right swirls and lines. Voila! Visual delight.