Mel Ratliff

PAINTING: I generally combine a mixture of gouache, colored pencils, graphite pencils, colored charcoal, watercolors, pastels, and ink. I paint on paper or board. I coat each painting with 2 heavy coats of fixative and 2 heavy coats of Dorland’s Wax Medium. After 5 days to dry, I buff polish the surface. This leaves a protective shell coating looking much like an oil painting.
SCULPTURE: I use wood screws & hot glue to build the main wood sculpture, then I may or may not paint or stain it. I then attach pieces of found metal, arrowheads, glass, wire, and small Indian pottery shards. Most of the wood and metal I find on the desert floor or mountains near Albuquerque.
GLASS: I use Tiffany-style techniques in the construction of my stained glass using lead-free solder. I often use a combination of painted, sandblasted flashed glass, and fused glass that I have created in my Kiln. I prefer to build free-hanging (non-functional) 24″ round stained glass panels.