Ray Besserdin Artist Statement

"The Red Sands Garden" is the first of a body of work called "Impressions of Melbourne's Botanic Gardens in Paper Sculpture".  Its purpose is to expound my love of nature while simultaneously expanding my paper sculpture techniques into an impressionistic style. I have branded the style Impressionist Paper Sculpture for that reason. 

I don't concern myself with realistic representation of objects, but rather an authentic, real "impression" of the entire experience of visiting the beautiful botanic gardens of my city.  This way I can get the same emotive response from my audience. I use cutting instruments only sparingly, prefering to tear the papers and reveal organic edges intrinic to the paper medium.

Another aspect making this style identifiable with my current direction is the use of a single colour, soft ink wash in the background.  It is used only sparingly to highlight parts of the elements as ink does not clog the paper structure like paint, but just shifts the natural colour of the paper where I want.  I only use the one ink colour allowing the natural colours of the papers to stand alone for the rest of art.