The Weedy Garden BILLY RENKL
25 February - 11 April 2026
Artwork List
in order of appearance
1) The Weedy Garden Cover 2025
Waterco or, gouache nk acry ic col age10 x 20 n (25 4 x 50 8 cm)Framed 16 5 x 26 5 in
2) The Weedy Garden Mi kweed (half-t tle), 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache ink co ored penci , acryl c, co lage10 x 10 in
3) The Weedy Garden Tit e Page, 2025
Waterco or, gouache nk acry ic col age10 x 20 n (25 4 x 50 8 cm)Framed 16 5 x 26 5 in
4) The Weedy Garden Ded cat on Page, 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache ink acryl c,16 5 x 26 5 in
5) The Weedy Garden f Youre a Bumblebee 2025
Waterco or, gouache nk acry ic col age10 x 20 n (25 4 x 50 8 cm)Framed 16 5 x 26 5 in
6)The Weedy Garden: If Youre a S ender Green Snake, 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache ink acryl c, co lage10 x 20 in (25 4 x 50 8 cm)Framed 16 5 x 26 5 n
7) The Weedy Garden f Youre a Hungry Squirrel 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache ink co ored penci , acryl c, co lage10 x 20 in
8) The Weedy Garden f Youre an Orange Butterfly 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache ink acryl c, co lage10 x 20 in (25 4 x 50 8 cm)Framed 16 5 x 26 5
9) The Weedy Garden If Youre a Speckled Toad 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache ink co ored penci , acryl c, co lage10 x 20 in (25 4 x 50 8 cm)Framed 16 5 x 26 5 in
10)The Weedy Garden f Youre a Cottonta Rabb t 2025
Cyanotype wi h watercolor gouache nk, acry ic co lage10 x 20 n (25 4 x 50 8 cm)Framed 16 5 x 26 5
11) The Weedy Garden: I Youre a T red Turtle 2025
Cyanotype wi h watercolor gouache nk, co ored penc , acry ic, co lage10 x 20 n (25 4 x 50 8 cm)Framed 16 5 x 26 5 n
12) The Weedy Garden: f Youre a Striped Ch pmunk 2025
Watercolor gouache nk, acry ic col age10 x 20 in (25 4 x 50 8 cm)Framed 16 5 x 26 5 n
13) The Weedy Garden: f Youre a Green Humm ngb rd, 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache nk, acryl c col age10 x 20 in (25
14) The Weedy Garden: f Youre a S eepy F refly, 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache nk, colored penc l acrylic, co lage10 x
16 5 x 26 5 n
15) The Weedy Garden: f Youre a Go dfinch 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache nk, acryl c col age10 x 20
16) The Weedy Garden: f Youre a Tree Frog, 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache nk, colored penc l acrylic, co lage10 x 20 n (25 4 x
17) The Weedy Garden: f Youre a Rob n 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache nk, acryl c
18) The Weedy Garden: f Youre a Smal Green L zard 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache nk, acryl c col age10 x
19) The Weedy Garden: If Youre a Brown Wren, 2025
Cyanotype w th waterco or gouache, ink acryl c col age10 x
20) The Weedy Garden: f Youre a Child 2025
Cyanotype with watercolor gouache nk, acryl c col age10 x
21) The Weedy Garden: Case Wrap 2025
Collage and gouache ink, and acry ic on wood pane , 24 x 38 n
Vintage and antique paper can be surprisingly beautiful, and I find the way that it carries its history with it moving
It is almost like a body, the way that it ages, gets scarred, bears the marks of what has happened to it, who has owned it and how they used it.
Sometimes I have an idea for a piece first, and often that comes from something I’m reading. I then start hunting through my studio for the right fragments to give that idea form. Often, though, I’m struck by how lovely or strange or moving a particular scrap of paper is, and it will suggest a direction for a new piece of work
Before the last hundred years or so, artworks in our tradition were mostly made of the same few luxury materials: oil paint on canvas, tempera on wood panel, stone or bronze, gold leaf on vellum. It was that way, in the European/American tradition, for maybe more than a thousand years. A hundred years ago, though, in the summer of 1912, Georges Braque had this incredible insight: he could paste down a piece of wallpaper that had been printed to look like wood onto his artwork, and forego drawing the wood himself. (The word ‘collage’ comes from the French word for paste.)
This was revolutionary – it opened up the whole world for artists After Braque, artists could make art out of anything To me, this revolutionary insight is as important in the history of art as the discovery of perspective in the Renaissance In fact, perspective is a kind of illusion, the illusion of space in a flat artwork; collages can be made of images, but they are seldom illusions. – BR
Billy Renkl grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. He earned a BFA in Visual Communications from Auburn University and an MFA in Drawing from the University of South Carolina. He teaches drawing and illustration at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Renkl is also represented in several public collections, among them The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Kiwanis Club International, The Tennessee State Museum, and The College of Notre Dame in Baltimore.