Simply Images - Sarah Dalton

The organizing thread of this body of work is birds. I photograph, paint, collage, and sculpt avian forms, often beginning with a photograph that guides the process. I build abstract backgrounds and collage papers using a gelli plate, stencils, layered papers, and direct marks making with acrylics and watercolors. Into these surfaces I either paint detailed birds or use negative painting to suggest bird shapes and trees, letting abstraction and figuration coexist. Occasionally I transfer photographs onto driftwood found on the beach, then paint and distress the surface to integrate image, texture, and memory. Together these techniques explore materiality, gesture, and the many ways birds inhabit both place and imagination.