Day 30 Over the Moon

Over the Moon

Collage 6 X 6

The last day of the Challenge! I made it! There were many who signed up but not everyone made it to the finish. It's not easy and I congratulate everyone who made a commitment to do a piece of art every day. It's huge! Even if you worked everyday but didn't complete a piece that day it's still a commitment to be in the studio and put the effort in. The real challenge now is to keep up the effort, do the work, and get better at what you do. Don't take the next week off, but keep on. (That's me giving myself a pep talk). 

I've done another little valentine for today. It's sort of says what I'm feeling about everyone who has been reading my blog. I'm over the moon for you! Thanks for putting up with my chatter and my collages. I'm blessed.

Day 29 Safari

Safari

Collage 6 X 6

The large patterns in the papers of this collage were made by stamping with a hand made stamp. The small ones were from a store bought stamp. The patterns and colors made me think of African textiles so I found a postage stamp from Zambia in my ephemera collection to add to the collage. That's how I came up with "Safari". The papers are all altered National Geographic pages. 

Day 28 Paris Memories

Paris Memories

Collage 6 X 6

My 30 day collage odyssey has almost come to an end. I'll be ready to put away the papers for awhile and pick up a paint brush. I do love the design aspect of collage making, some things work better than others. This one doesn't quite work as well as I hoped. Every collage is a learning experience. What could I do to make it better, what other colors could I have used are a couple of questions I ask myself. Learning good design helps in all kinds of art. 

This collage was made from a placemat, a French map, bleeding tissue and acrylic paint.

Day 27 Rainy Day

Rainy Day

Collage 6 X 6

We are having record rainfalls in south Florida this year. It's the wettest January that I can remember. In the last 24 hours we have had 5 or more inches of rain and it will rain most of tomorrow, they say. I keep reminding myself that at least I don't have to shovel it. As this collage came together it looked like the rainy day we are having, so I found a transfer of a girl with an umbrella to finish it. I'm looking forward to the sunny week end that is promised. 

Day 26 Horsing Around

Horsing Around

Collage 5 X 6

I made this one a little smaller to fit into a 5 X 5 opening in a mat and frame. It's made with hand painted tissue, altered magazine, security envelopes and a part of a page of a poetry book that has been painted. It was that scrap of poetry that sent me in the direction of finding a horse to use as an acrylic transfer. The marks were made with a watercolor stick then sprayed with fixative. Using watercolor sticks makes it easy to erase until I get the marks that I like, then I fix them before coating the collage with gloss medium.

Four more days to go...stay tuned!

Day 25 Why Not?

Why Not?

Collage 5.5 X 5.5

Day 25, Why Not? is colorful and a little whimsical. As I was putting this one together I was indulging in a little dark chocolate therapy, Doves Dark Chocolate, to be exact. They always have something written on the inside of the wrapper, mine said "Why Not?" I thought, why not put "why not?' in my collage. I finished it off with some stamped notes to go with the notes in the paper, a stamped circle to go with the circles in the green paper, and considered it finished. I think it's a fun one. The papers are hand painted, printed and the pink from an envelope. 

Day 24 Before She Flew

Before She Flew

Collage 6 X 6

The text that I found gave me the title. It's nice to have that taken care of because sometimes it's hard to come up with a title. This collage has some interesting paper sources. the image on the left was a copy of some paint left over on a disposable palette paper. It was interesting, so when it was dry I made a color copy of it and prepared it for collage by coating the copy with gloss medium. The lower brown piece is a cone coffee filter. I love the texture of the seam. Above that is some painted tissue, the music and more painted tissue. The bird is a copy of one that I found in my stash, the text from a book of poetry that was painted and the top piece from a Geli Plate print. The papers are made up ahead of time, most of them months ago, then I look through them to decide what will make up my collage. There's more to it than meets the eye.