Featured Artist Rhonda Counts

Rhonda Counts creates sumptuous, richly textured acrylic paintings of nature by impressing natural elements, such as leaves and other found objects into modeling paste she has applied to her canvas. Learn more about her work by visiting her website.

 

 

The textures and colors of nature inspire me. I want to capture nature’s details on my canvas. As I quote with regards to my work, “I create a textured canvas, and then I paint.”

 

 

During my career as an art director for Walt Disney Imagineering, I would study the various techniques my fellow Imagineers used as they created the fantasy landscapes for the parks. I asked myself the question, how can I achieve similar effects on a canvas?

 

 

The first step I take in achieving texture is to apply a paper substrate which may be crinkled tissue paper or a decorative textural paper applied with matte medium. I form the paper as I lay it on the canvas.

 

 

In creating the overall “natural applied textures” I work with modeling paste. Modeling paste holds the textural shapes as I work my colors into the painting. I work the paste onto the canvas using various tools, but I often find my hands are the best tools—it’s like playing in mud! I especially love the feathered shaped effects I create. The feathered effects inspired my chicken paintings.

 

 

As I work the modeling paste, I am creating the underlying textures I wish to have in the painting.

 

 

The next step is “impressing” the leaves or other found objects into the paste. Once the modeling paste is dry, I peel off the pressed objects and seal the paste with gesso. I now have a textured canvas to paint.

 

 

I paint with Golden fluid acrylics and allow the paint to fall into the textured crevices. I work wet and dry over the texture. I am continuously working the colors, even lifting off color on the texture, if need be, with denatured alcohol. This process is my Zen, I am completely in the moment as I observe the colors bringing the piece to life.

 

 

I usually work on two to three pieces at once. I have to gather leaves while I can! Since I tend to work seasonally, it helps to reserve paints, causing less waste once a color is mixed. Autumn is my favorite season to reflect in my paintings.

 

 

I am drawn to abstract painting—it is the color and composition of a piece that intrigue me. I refer to my work as abstract realism. I began my career at Disney as a graphic artist and this has influenced the composition of my paintings. I am also inspired by the simplified views of the natural world reflected in Japanese wood block prints, especially those of artist Ohara Koson.

 

 

I continue to experiment with various techniques and mediums to insure my work will always be evolving. To what levels can I take this process? Reflecting the textures and colors in nature will always be the bases for my paintings. My favorite quote, by Margaret Hoover Brooks, is “Nature sustains us, contains us, to this we belong.”

 

 

It is my journey and I hope you will check in now and then to see where I am along its path.

 

Artist Rhonda Counts invites you to follow her on Instagram.

 

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