We were watching a video of a conversation with British painter Rose Wylie and they were looking at a short series of hers in the style of retablos or ex votos — usually small paintings honouring a saint or showing a moral story.
We have a few wonderful Mexican ex votos painted on tin and part of what I love about them is the tight text at the bottom of each image. That was true of Rose Wylie’s versions as well and it made me wonder about trying something in that format for myself.
Gayla had brought out some cheap dollar store markers we have and I found an old half-used Strathmore grey-paged notebook and made a few drawings quirking pulling text from nearby books.
I don’t want to fully mimick the style of ex votos — although I have seen that done quite well by people like Esther Pearl Watson.
But there is definitely something that feels good to me in this format that I should follow up on in some other form.
