撸先生

 Anke Schofield draws viewers into her limitless imagination, where portraits merge with painted images of the natural world in a mixed media wonderland. Find her and her work at Gib Singleton Gallery July 18 & 19, 4-7 p.m.

After living in Atlanta for 15 years, Schofield moved to Colorado, where she spent a year in Aspen and now works on multiple pieces at a time in her huge studio in Wheat Ridge. While she continues to depict her whimsical animals in surreal settings, Colorado’s wildlife has roamed into her work, merging with
her rich mind’s eye.

“I love Colorado 鈥� I love the people, the scenery, the animals, the sky, the mountain towns. Colorado inspires me more. It has opened up a whole new level of creativity,” she said.

In addition to nature, Schofield pays close attention to the trends and colors of the design world, so her work fits perfectly into contemporary homes, as well as traditional ones.

Relying on her early training as a photographer, she embarks on a scavenger hunt to blend images, from antlers and skulls to flowers and feathers, which she incorporates into her mixed-media paintings. Inanimate and animate objects combine seamlessly in unexpected and pleasing ways as photos, collage, oil and acrylic paints, wax and sometimes even tar take shape. She completes the paintings with a shiny or flat veneer of epoxy resins, which she hand fires with a torch.

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“Photos can sometimes look flat, so this gives it another dimension. It makes it look like liquid glass,” she said.

Each mixed media piece incorporates six to eight layers, so she’s always working on eight to 10 paintings at a time, placing a layer on one, then jumping to the next paintings.

To maintain cohesion within her seasonal collections, she begins with ideas for each grouping. Then she allows the color and lines to organically change along the way. Last winter’s collection featured both animals 鈥� such as giant longhorn, bison and deer 鈥� and portraits, the latter of which she called 撸先生
Bunnies. This summer, she’s been inspired by nature and the West.

“And all things beautiful in the eye of the beholder,” she explained.

Find flowers and birds with deer, horses and longhorns. Her work is part fantasy, part reality. 

“Every show, I try to have something new in there,” she said. “I change my style because I get bored otherwise. You can know, and recognize, my style, but I try to up the bar. These days, my work is more
involved, with more elements and design.”

In the past, she played with proportions in which a tiny elephant balanced atop three black-and-white balls or a little girl stood upon a zebra. Now, her collections include geometrical depictions, sophisticated yet mythical women and animals adorned with flowers.

Her shows allow her to interact with her viewers, as well as the gallery team, all of which she feels incredibly grateful for. During the meet and greets, she hears viewers’ interpretations of the images that emerged through her very active imagination.

“I don’t want to spell out the whole story,” she said. “I want the viewer to make up their own story of the work. I just give them the base. I start with the story, but the ending is up to the viewer.”