To Russia, Mushrooms, and Gold leaf, with Love
A wide variety of mushrooms thrive in Adirondack forests, and Sears depicts each unique specimen with rich colors, lush textures, and sometimes illuminated backgrounds and frames.
Inspiration to begin a large collection of mushroom portraits merging the rustic with the extravagant came about two years ago. While backpacking through Russia and Scandinavia, Sears toured dozens of palaces and museums as she made her way from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg. "When I returned from that trip," Sears says, "I wanted to gild everything!"
She selected fallen branches to hand-craft each frame. "It's a precise process, but the outcome is something organic. The whole piece comes out of this task of finding the right branches. When I strip one of it's bark, designs in the wood grain (left from insects or the elements) are revealed, and that becomes part of each pieces unique beauty... My goal is always to create a painting that has really merged with its frame..."
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