Fruit

FRUIT

Collage - by Maureen Wilkinson

This is one of Maureen's larger works, and one of her first collages, and completed around 2009.  The original hangs above the fireplace in our hall, and is one of my favourites. She had this to say about it...

"At my previous Cornish home, a small farm, there was a substantial soft fruit garden with raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and blueberries. The bushes and canes, unprotected from birds and rabbits, and never properly pruned, were none the less prolific, producing more fruit than we could consume in summer, or use up, frozen and preserved, in winter.

The fruit garden was a sensual and visual delight, indulged as much by the birds as ourselves, and on many occasions I have picked (and gorged upon) ripe raspberries or blackcurrants with birds perched fearlessly all around me, doing much the same. This collage, and the blissful woman who inhabits it, celebrates abundance, sensuality, sexuality and pleasure.  

Some time ago, in a fit of economy, I purchased a 5 foot wide roll of high quality water colour paper, but I hadn't realised just how heavy a roll of that size would be, nor how difficult it would be to find a clear space in which to accurately cut paper for work. I now use the paper for making collages...cutting off several metres of at a time and painting this on the floor of my studio with acrylics. I take pleasure in including lots of painterly blocks, stripes, blends, and splashes. The paper is then cut with a scalpel or scissors. Because the collage is built up in many layers I often have to paint several batches of paper during the course of a piece of work, and before 'Fruit' was framed it had become so multi-layered and sturdy that it could stand propped against a wall , like a piece of board. 

Interestingly the three dimensional effect of this collage has translated surprisingly well into a fine art print, and the collages are amongst my best selling prints".