Studio Michaelino

In August of 2021, Marcia composed an image with a palette and ambiance unlike any of her prior work. From start to finish, it was an eight-hour session, including time spent iteratively capturing over 300 photographs (60+ sets of 5 exposure-bracketed photos). Reviewing the results, we decided to hold back on completing this work until it was needed for our next gallery show. We returned to the archive of photos a year later to choose, crop, and print the master image for our 2022 show “Messages from the Urban Garden.”

The seventh organic collage within our twelve-part review of Marcia’s landscape-oriented artworks is “Twilight #12”.

1. “Twilight #12” – preferred 2022 crop
2. Full-frame table view.
3. Vignette version chosen in 2025

Here are two of the “messages” we included along with “Twilight #12” for its debut.

“Every home garden should be a microcosm of the world we want”
E. N. Anderson, The Pursuit of Ecotopia, © 2010

“The garden isn’t a hobby. A garden is a symbiotic relationship with the plant and animal kingdoms. Throughout history, the garden has been revered as a sacred space devoted to beauty and sustenance. First spoken in ancient tongues, “garden” is the etymological root of the garden’s most spiritual synonym: Paradise.”
Michael and Marcia

“Sunset with Basil Pepper Tree” is the sixth organic collage within our twelve-part review of Marcia’s landscape-oriented artworks. Composed in late October 2020, the name playfully refers to the unusual variety “Green Pepper Basil.” The taste of its leathery leaves resembles a green bell pepper more so than the common Genovese variety.

Our plant overwinters easily on the side porch where it has lived for years during the colder months. Marcia was inspired by the flowers and form of the herb while it was still on our porch in late winter. She saw its branches as a tree, perfect for a fantasy landscape. So as the art harvest of 2020 was nearly finished, Marcia added another of her “Petal Paintings” to the studio’s catalog.

1. “Sunset with Basil Pepper Tree” – preferred crop.
2. Full-frame table view.
3. “Green Pepper Basil” on our porch in 2020

Continuing with our twelve-part review of Marcia’s landscape-oriented artworks, the fourth organic collage, “Petal Pointillism #8” was completed in October of 2020. It was a good month for art, as the two posts to follow will illustrate.

As part of the composition, Marcia used beautiful, delicate flowers from a Daucus (Queen Anne’s Lace) variety “Dara.” She soon found that the Dara flowers wilted quickly, and so she waited to replace these with fresh-picked blossoms at the very end of the session. As an artist, Marcia has learned to consider the longevity of a picked flower as part of the hours-long process to compose her creations.

Here is the
1. 16x20 crop of Petal Pointillism #8
2. Full frame table view image
3. Side view detail
4. A macro flyover video. Look for a close-up of the Dara flowers early in this short film.