Watercolor, Ink and Gouache on Paper I live in the rural-industrial coalfields of Appalachia. Once a land of great natural beauty, it has been ravaged by centuries of industry, and the last remnants of unspoiled nature are isolated between regions of bleakness and environmental trauma. My recent work is inspired by accounts of extinct birds, such as the Passenger Pigeon, whose vast populations once thrived within the oak, beech, and chestnut forests of Appalachia. I photographed tree carvings on a wooded hillside above the Monongahela River, in a place called Sophie’s Woods, where the bones of a young woman lie in an unmarked grave. In the surrounding woods, decades of lovers have their carved names in the soft bark of the beech trees. I printed ink transfers of these bark carvings onto watercolor paintings of flowering trees. I then drew and collaged fragments from 19th Century natural history prints on the final layers.
Please see more lovely work on Maggie's website maggyaston.com/main