Kim Santomauro / Der Vogel and Just A Tree

Hi!  Welcome to my Projects Process page, where I will explain how I created the two pieces on display at Das Provisorium, Der Vogel and Just A Tree.

The materials used in both paintings are:  acrylic paint, photographs, pencil, and torn out pages from a schoolbook or dictionary.

Der Vogel (20 cm x 20 cm canvas, 50€):

Some Grundschulbücher came from a friend of my husband's who thought when I first moved here they might be helpful ("Muttersprache, 3 Klasse").  Well I had enough German coursebooks so I kind of ignored it for a while, until now!  Perfect for creative collages!

After adhering the yellow bird onto the canvas (pretty sure I took this bird's picture in Tanzania or Kenya) I thought it tied in nicely with the lesson in the book for German articles (which I guess I have officially given up on learning:):

I also scratched up the surface of the photo a little bit with an exacto knife while I was deciding what I wanted to do with the little guy (or girl). If you look closely, you can see little moustache like wings (if he only knew).  When I first applied the paint at top I was a bit shocked to see how mauvey/pinky it was so I stopped right away and rethought my color choices.  Yikes.

Der, Die, Das...who can remember these things?!

Photo printed on my inkjet printer for transfer
onto canvas

Now all the birdie needs is a more bird-friendly color
surrounding it!

I decided the birdie needed more of an environment (so he felt at home), so I transferred a photo negative of a scene from Friedensengel onto the canvas and kind of merged it with the photo of the bird.  This was really just an experimental project for me, along with the other painting.  I really enjoyed texturizing it and not being afraid to just 'do it'!


Just A Tree (20 cm x 20 cm canvas, 50€):

I took this photo of this leaning tree on one of my snowy walks through the park.   I love walking in the park when its sunny and snowy!  It seemed to be leaning over to me especially to say hello, or "Thanks for stopping by" and I like how the path winded around beyond it.  I tried to open up the path from my perspective by continuing it onto the canvas.

The small piece of paper is from a Hebrew dictionary I got on a trip to Tel Aviv a while ago.  Some of the words on it say "Secret, to become lean, lean, to wink, and to be wide."  I also scribbled (somewhat in frustration because I wanted to know why I was creating this, but I think sometimes you just don't know why something is leading you in one direction or another), so I etched in with an exacto knife, "Just a tree!"

But with all due respect, I think it is indeed a special tree!

Thanks for stopping by, to see more of my current work click here.  Please email me directly if you are interested in purchasing this or any other artwork:  kim@santomauro.de.

I'd love to hear from you, so leave a comment, question, or critique below!