Cut paper art

It has been nearly a year since I've posted anything here, so maybe it's time to put up a representative sample of the kind of work that I've done lately.  This is St. Martin de Porres, a Dominican monk from Peru in the early 16th century, a man of prayer who was known as a healer, but did not stop there.  He also cared for animals large and small.  The most famous small story about him concerns some mice that had overrun the monastery.  He invited them to live outside the walls in a place he designated, and they followed his suggestion, solving the monastery's problem while doing providing the mice with a proper home.

Working with cut paper is quite a different process from any work where one fills in a drawing with color from a brush or pencil.  First of all, there are the many gorgeous papers to choose from. Textures, colors, varying translucence, the papers bring their own personalities to the work.  It's like working in collaboration with a group of artists who all love beauty.

Then the size of the picture makes a difference.  I can't do details that are too fine; they would just be lost.  I have found that just redoing a watercolor picture in cut paper doesn't really work well.  The sort of image that watercolor does best is quite different from the sort of image that cut paper does well.  Sometimes there is energy in a scene that I would not have been able to express in watercolor, but can do with cut paper.  Perspective doesn't seem to be as big an issue with these works; they will never be photorealistic in any case; I can let them suggest rather than show the action.

This work to me now is a pleasure and a joy.  I hope that translates to others.