Elizabeth Smith

In the Fall of 2017 I started noticing a very common mineral called Mica in tones of gold, bronze, rose and purple all over the ground where I lived and suddenly my eyes were fully opened to really seeing all the wild flowers and grasses and colorful leaves and gorgeous trees all around me and along with the mica I really wanted to create….something. It was equally important to capture and preserve the actual subject matter: to gather a wide variety of wildflowers, grasses, leaves, twigs, moss, mica, quarts and pebbles and to then create images of individual trees, meadow or landscape scenes. Curtain tassels and woven belts make fantastic and unusual trees with intricate roots, trunks and branches to which I add a variety of natural and skeleton leaves. Touches of acrylic paint on the blossoms and stems enhance and preserve the vibrant colors of the flowers and some of the leaves. Everything is arranged in a frame on a clear glass surface and then encapsulated and protected in a UV resistant epoxy resin for a glossy, tough coat.