THROUGH MANY GATES

12" x 12"
Collage and mixed media on canvas

More evidence of my fascination with wrought iron in this small piece which I worked on quite intensely — I was very involved with it on and off for many months. Some paintings are completed very quickly, while others can take a very long time. Some days go swimmingly; others feel a bit tragic when you've spent hours working on something and then decide it needs to be completely removed and redone!

Some of the collage materials used for this one are photocopies of photos I have taken over many years....they included a rather fine gate in Boston Mass., USA, another gate in Mill Hill, London, and more ironwork in upstate New York. This piece belongs to the series 'Safar: journey' which is about the imagined travels of the ancestors through the centuries as they migrated from biblical Middle East to central Europe, and — for some of them — eventually to London. I really enjoyed making this collage; I had fun using some acrylic gel which contains tiny metallic bits — very appropriate to the subject matter.