Mounting small collages

Oriental Expressions I and II

Since these collages are small, I decided to mount them on gallery wrapped canvas. The black background sets off the collages, I think. I used soft acrylic gel medium coated evenly on the back of the collage so that it would adhere to the canvas. I used a brayer to make sure they were firmly attached and the excess gel was removed with a baby wipe. Then I turned them over on a non stick surface and pressed them down with books. After drying everything was coated with UV varnish. The collages are 4 X 4 and the finished piece is 6 X 6, ready to enter into the next art show.

Playful Collage

Who-ville?

I made this little collage awhile ago. The houses are from a cutout stamp that one of my students made for me. She had one of those machines that makes cutouts for scrapbooking. We used a piece of self sticking craft foam and fastened it to some cardboard to make the stamp. This was the trial run, I haven't found a use for it since but perhaps I will in the future. It reminds me of Whoville from the Grinch movies. 

The Third Collage, Oriental Expressions

Oriental Expressions 3, Umbrellas

This is the third in the series where I'm using the Japanese papers that were given me. I've been trading off between making collages and painting watercolors. The watercolor painting I'm working on is taking more time than I planned mostly because I haven't planned it. Things go so much better when I have a plan and stick to it. It's another full sheet and I'm at the stage where I'm stuck and I don't know what to do next. It's a good time to put it away and let it simmer for awhile and get out the papers for making collage.

I went to the Florida Watercolor Society convention and show last week end. I enjoy all the artists who demonstrate their style and method of painting, the trade show with too many tempting supplies at sale prices and, most of all, the show with all the wonderful artwork that made it into the exhibition. I met artist friends and rubbed elbows with the winners. I think a week end of art immersion is a very good thing!

A Mini Collage Class

I taught a Mini Collage Class last Saturday in Sun City, FL. My long-time friend, Dixie, was instrumental in getting the class organized. There were 10 enthusiastic ladies in the class and they were a joy to work with. They got right into it and were eager to learn the process. I had the little frames that were a donation and made the paper substrate to fit each one so that the class would be able to get started right away finding their collage papers. For a warm up they all did 3 practice collages on index cards using glue sticks to fasten the papers down. That got their creative juices going so that they could put together their heat fused collages. A couple of gals had to leave early before I got a picture of their collage so there are only 8 out of 10, but they are all wonderful little compositions. The images are all between 2 x 2 to 3 x 3 inches. 

Oriental Paper Collage

Oriental Expressions 2 Umbrellas

Mixed Media-Collage 4 X 4

This is the second collage I have completed using the Japanese paper. I love the red in these collages. It's so eye catching. This collage also has some of the envelope paper (upper right) and some specialty paper (center). These are heat fused collages that are coated with acrylic gloss medium and finished with a coat of acrylic UV varnish. 

Oriental Papers

 

Oriental Expressions 1

Collage 3.5 X 4.5

I'm finally back to blogging after a very busy summer. We had 3 trips to Minnesota and one to Oregon and back. My suitcase really got a work out and so did I! 

A long time ago a friend who had lived in Japan gave me some scraps of decorative paper that she had used to cover boxes. They are quite beautiful and have been a treasure in my paper collection but it's time that they are used. So I coated some of them with gloss and have begun a series of collages with them. Since most of the pieces of paper are small, the collages will be small. This is my first which I mixed with hand painted tissue (the light red), marbled paper ( black) and security envelope (lower right corner). I'm enjoying the challenge of working with the colors and patterns in these papers.

Finally Finished!

Elephant on Masa paper

Watercolor 28 X 20

I've been working on this for a long time. Full sheet paintings take me a little longer and I wanted to take my time enjoy the process, and watch what happened as I added color to the slight texture of the Masa paper. I had very little wrinkling in it when I applied it to the watercolor paper and I liked working on it a lot. I used several references in order to get the detail in the eyes and the rest of the body. I wanted to emphasize the head and let the body just fade into soft edges. 

  

I haven't come up with a good title for it yet. If you have any suggestions please write them in the comments. 

Summertime Slow Down

Matlacha Mangroves

Watercolor on Masa paper, 10 X 14

It's hot, it's rainy, it's summertime in Florida. It's a good time to slow down and take it easy. A time to travel to cooler places and it you can't do that, you stay inside and read, play on the internet and maybe paint a little. I've been doing very little painting but the elephant painting is coming along. I'm taking my time with it and enjoying the process. There is no pressure of a deadline of a show to enter. 

I enjoy working on the Masa paper because sometimes the painting just seems to paint itself, especially if you do a landscape. You wet the paper and then crinkle it leaving a little space that's not crinkled; then you smooth it on an absorbent surface like a towel or piece of felt. The next step is to lightly wash over the wrinkled areas with a soft brush and India ink, black, brown or both as I did. It's glued to watercolor paper using a special flour based wallpaper paste and a brayer to get a good adhesion. At this point I let it dry, but you could continue to work on it. I wasn't going for mangroves but that's what appeared when I started to add color. 

Summer Painting

Elephant Herd 

Watercolor 4 X 6

This summer I've been taking a watercolor class that had me out of my comfort zone for the month of May. We were working on a still life set up which is not one of my favorite things to paint, unless it's something I'm particularly fond of. It was a struggle, I learned some things and my paintings ended up in the trash. I think I still have one unfinished one lurking somewhere. 

This month we were supposed to start on something of our own choosing. The instructor probably got tired of the whining about the still life. Since summer time is a good time to tackle a project that has been on the back of my brain for awhile, I decided to do a full sheet elephant painting on a Masa paper covered sheet of 140 pound paper. The Masa paper technique I learned a long time ago in a workshop with Chen-Khee Chee. I love the crinkled paper to work on and thought it would lend itself well to painting an elephant. 

The first thing I had to do was find some reference material and do some sketches and small color studies of elephants. This is also a way to procrastinate getting to the larger painting. The painting above is one of my practice paintings that I actually liked. I have started on the full sheet painting. I don't have a scary blank sheet anymore, but I'm taking my time and hope that it will be "blog worthy" in a week or two.

Still Life

Still Life on the Lanai

Mixed media/collage 

16 X 16 Gallery Wrap Canvas

A still life; a moment in time captured in a painting. Our workshop with Tara Funk Grim was held on a lanai (a screened outdoor room) on the lovely island of Sanibel Florida. We were surrounded by trees, and a courtyard with birds singing and flitting about. We were visited and serenaded everyday by a cardinal. Our last day we had a set up of fruit for our still life which we could "paint" with our colored tissue in any arrangement. It was far from complete when we left class on the last day. I've been working on it, off and on, ever since. Now, I think I'm finished. The yellow table is laden with fruit with a view to the world outside. I think I can still hear the cardinal!

Ooops, Wrong Way!

1. Collage beginning

On the first day of the Tara Grim workshop we started with 3 colors of tissue paper, the first layer was the light blue, the second layer was the yellow connecting the light blue and the third layer was the mid-tone blue.  We were to try to make our torn tissues different sizes and shapes. I found it difficult to tear tissue in different shapes because it wants to tear with the "grain" of the paper into rectangles, cutting was the only option for me in that regard. The papers were attached to our substrates with gloss medium.

 2. Adding stamping

We carved out own stamps from a soft flexible material while the collage dried. Then we mixed up some acrylic paint and stamped over our collage. 

 3. Add contrasting elements

OK, this was the part where things started to go in the wrong direction. We were to add some contrasting elements to our collage. Granted, this was just supposed to be a fun, getting started piece, not something serious but I really didn't like my results. I needed to do something with it, I just couldn't let it sit around. So, the following week...

4. Ooops, Wrong Way!

I covered most of it over with acrylic paint and used cut out stencils to mask out the fish so that the under painting would show. I also used a shaper tool to remove the wet acrylic to make the seaweed. You can still see a lot of texture under the acrylic paint from the tissue and paper collage. I think the fish are varied and interesting from the under painting. One fish is traveling right and all the others left, which is why I named it what I did. Also because the painting took a "wrong" turn at the third step and needed a do-over. 

Collage On a Bag II, Courageous

Courageous

Collage on a paper bag

I have a special friend who is very courageous to my estimation. She has a genetic disease called CMT which is hard to pronounce and even harder to understand. It causes nerve degeneration and can progress differently in each person. My friend has been having a hard time walking the last couple of years. She has shown a lot of courage just learning to cope with her increasing disability. Everyday things which most people don't even think about, like sweeping a floor or going to the grocery store are 

major feats to her. So this is for you, Ellen, my courageous friend. (Click on the picture to enlarge the details). 

Collage On a Paper Bag

Paper Bag Collage 1

13 3/4 X 11

I love watching Laura Lein-Svencner's videos she posts on You-tube. I watched one where she cut apart a Trader Joe shopping bag and collaged on the unprinted inside. I happened to have a bag and decided to try it myself. You have to be careful to have nice straight edges if you want your margins to look good. Otherwise, the process is the same with coating the bag with gloss medium and using a tack iron to fuse the papers to the bag. If I wish to display it, I'll need to float it in a frame. For now it's an unframed piece. 

Collage Workshop

Collage Bouquet

Mixed Media, 16 X 20

This past week end I took a workshop from a Delaware artist, Tara Funk Grim. She's an accomplished painter and collagist. She begins her collages with a light tissue paper background and adds colored tissue and other papers as she goes, using gloss medium to seal the papers to the substrate. This is different from what I've been doing with the hot iron, it is a more traditional collage. After the papers are fixed and dry she starts painting out with acrylic the areas she doesn't like and cleans up the edges of the torn papers. She will also add more papers if needed.  Her work is amazing, go to her web site at www.tarafunkgrim.com 

Be sure to click on my image to get an enlargement so you can see all the "stuff" in there. 

Create a Challenge

Create

Collage 10 X 10

I've been challenging myself to add more detail and interest to my collages. More layers, and more complexity. With that kind of a challenge it's hard to know when to quit. I kept adding and decided that I think it's enough. But I'm still not sure. Maybe there will be more. I like the cascading effect of the pieces coming down. It's all about learning and stretching myself to keep it interesting. I once had a teacher tell me that an artist is in the business of entertaining the viewer. Let me know if you've been entertained.

This collage is made of hand made string paper, painted tissue paper, manufactured paper, and acrylic paint. It is coated with gloss medium and protected with UV varnish.

I'll be back soon...

My computer had a nasty virus and had to be completely cleaned out with everything reinstalled. It's working good as new now thanks to a talented young computer guru. So, I'm a little behind with blogging and posting my latest artwork. Once it gets photographed and edited I'll be ready to roll again. I hope you have a wonderful Easter with the joyful news of the resurrection. He is risen!

Little Gems

Blue and Red

Collage 3.5 X 4.5

Be Happy 

Collage, 3.5 X 4.5

I did two quick little collages with scraps from other collages. It's a good way to practice and to work on composition and design. It also teaches me which papers are transparent and provide that see-through factor. Some of the tissue and deli papers are painted thinly enough to provide that effect. I discovered that I really liked the ridged seam of a cone coffee filter that I used in the top collage. When the acrylic paint is put over that and wiped away, just enough paint stays in the ridges. I will use that again. Some other things I would change for a stronger composition. It's all part of the learning process.

Added the Waterfall

Scandinavian Horses with Waterfall

I debated and fiddled with it and finally decided to add the waterfall. So much of what I remember of our drive through Norway was the wonderful waterfalls coming from the top of the mountains. I also added a little more shadowing. Now I think I'll leave it alone. It's a memory piece for me that I will enjoy for awhile.

Scandinavian Horses

Scandinavian Horses 

Collage 10 X 10

This is a collage I worked on during a collage class I was teaching in February. For the final session the class was to start a larger piece than they had been working on. We started with a 12 X 12 piece of 140# watercolor paper which was taped to either 10 X 10 or 8 X 8. They were to either start completely new or use a small collage that they had done earlier to give them an idea of where to start. By this time they all had made various papers which were coated front and back with gloss medium so that their finished arrangement could be fused together with a hot iron. The class went so quickly, I wish I had taken pictures of some of the collages that were started. 

My collage stemmed from a kitchen towel that my daughter gave me. I copied the appliqued horses on my copier and cut them out for the collage. The rest of the collage was from my memories of our trips to Norway and Sweden. I'm thinking of adding a waterfall, if I do, I'll post this collage again.

A Successful Show

 Sold

 2nd Place, Sold

 Honorable Mention

 Sold

Sold

On the second week end in February our Pine Island artist's group always has an annual show and sale. I think this one was our 47th. It was a good show for me and for our club, I sold 4 paintings and received 2 awards in the mixed media category. Many paintings were sold. It was a busy time getting 10 paintings ready for one show and 2 for another. 

Besides that, the month of February is when my friend, Nancy, and I teach our collage class. We had 10 people sign up for the class so there was a lot of preparation for that, too. The class is having a lot of fun learning the Jonathan Talbot method of making collage. We also show how to alter the National Geographic and book pages, how to paint their own papers on tissue, printer paper and lunch bags. We cram a lot into 4 weeks. This has left me with little time to devote to the blog. Now February is almost over, can you believe it? We are expecting friends to show up at the end of the week to thaw out from their winter in the north. I think I'll need another 30 day challenge to get back to the studio when the dust settles.