Collage tulips...

When it comes to art, Grandma's old adage "a job begun is a job half done" is just WRONG! Sorry, Grandma... I've got a decent start on this 16"x20" piece but I have a long way to go to completion. I did a background in acrylic before I began laying collage elements. Now I've done a bit more painting and I will most likely continue that cycle a few more times... lots of fun. It's puttery though. Tomorrow I'm setting up another piece because I need to have more than one thing going... my brain needs to mull things over between sessions. Figuring out the next steps takes a while. Enjoy! Retweet this

Why are you doing collage? What about painting?

I hope to answer questions posed by several of my viewers - family to be specific - about the reasons behind my apparent abandonment of watercolor painting. Here goes - I began my art journey 3 years ago believing that I would always be a [self-proclaimed] watercolor snob. I found out quickly that watercolor is the most challenging and unforgiving medium in the art world. Never mind... I've always liked a challenge so I dove in with characteristic belligerence to learn as much as I could.

I felt ready for a new adventure last spring when my instructor, Sharon Williams, offered a mixed media class for the first time. We began last October. I expected to be challenged weekly by new and exciting techniques in WHATEVER experimental artistic pursuits Sharon deemed fitting. Wow! I discovered a whole new world out there with absolutely no limits on creativity and, get this, the ability to change my mind late in the creative process! That was something I definitely did not have when painting strictly with watercolor. Okay, okay... yes, you can lift and wash it [almost] all away even but it's just not the same. I still love watercolor. There is really nothing quite so beautiful as a well executed watercolor painting. But, I find my artistic bent bending... towards mixed media and most recently, collage. Will I change my mind again? Probably. I do certainly expect that I will continue to enjoy watercolor painting.

I've found a few resources for those of you that are wondering what on earth could be learned about collage that we didn't cover in grade 2 [and you know who you are, lol]. In addition to learning the simple process of cutting and pasting stuff onto a support, "painting" a collage provides a way to put the principles and elements of design into practice. Somehow working in a new way can unblock and/or stir up our creativity. It's fun too. For fun stuff, check out Claudine Hellmuth's collage art here.

"Collage has universal appeal to artists because it lends itself to constant and thorough search and experimentation. New and different ways to combine textures, colors and found object elements can, more than any other art form, be innovative. The versatility and flexibility of collage offers infinite possibilities for the arrangement of elements, unusual images, and imagined meanings not associated with works on canvas or other art forms." ARTTalk

Anne Bagby does amazing collage work and you can view a slideshow of her beautiful work by clicking here.

Ann Baldwin's approach to collage is explained very briefly in this introduction to her DVD. I really like the way Ann works and, if you read my blog regularly, you'll remember reviewed this DVD February 4th.

Until next time... cheers! Retweet this

Figures - so enjoyable

I continue to be surprised at how energizing it is to draw from a live model. Our class did so again today and this image is one of the 15 minute drawings that I did towards the end. I had a challenging but interesting angle and I think it turned out reasonable well. Although I could have puttered an extra 10 minutes. Enjoy! Retweet this

Collage 180 degrees...

The collage start that I posted yesterday bears little resemblance to this image. However, if you take yesterday's image and turn it upside down you should be able to see some of the "bones" still intact. [Flipped image is at the bottom of this post]
I worked off and on for a few hours this afternoon battling the strong straight lines that I had in the original composition. Even more challenging was the extremely large red shape. I finally just ripped it off and started again with a variety of dark papers in mid-value analogous blues and mauves. After a while I liked most of the big shapes but I was still quite concerned about the very dark "lightening bolt" shape. As I turned it around and thought about it, I could see mountains and a road! Finally this project was talking to me... (and yes, I know that sounds crazy. Whatever!) After that I puttered a bit longer strengthening what I saw and adding a bit of structure to it. So far, so good... I expect the class will have some helpful critique for me tomorrow. Bring it on!
Have a great week everybody!

Yesterday's image flipped upside down for your reference.

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Collage again

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all" Michelangelo

I admit here and now that I am struggling to put together the skills necessary to paint, as you can see I am in very good company. Perhaps the "struggle" is not really the right word. Challenged is better - and I do love a good challenge!

I began another collage this week and here is it's beginning. The collage unit is the first exposure I've had to acrylic painting. As a result, I've been working hard to keep my concentration on collage and composition. I've shown the value pattern I'm working from in the top left. I have a good deal left to do on this collage. Lots of painting and puttering and dealing with those very straight lines in the top left. More tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday!

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Figure unit

In today's art class we began a 4 week figure unit. I really enjoyed sketching today - we have such a great group of artists... some of the sketches were amazing. Sharon led us through some warm up exercises. First, we had the model do several very short poses so we could capture general body position - line angles for shoulders, hips, arms, legs, next did slightly longer poses and added hands/feet in simple mitt/sock shapes and the head placed at the proper angle. It's surprising how expressive these simple drawings can be. The pace is quick though, so we soon moved on to blocking in the chest and abdomen, then reviewed proportions for arms, legs, feet... We continued on adding more detail with each new sketch. At the end of the class we did a couple of 10 minute line drawings. Time really flies in these classes!
I've included one of my drawing here to show you the type of drawings we did. This sketch is about 24"X36" but even with that much paper I managed to run off the top with her head and off the bottom with her feet - clearly something I need to work on :o) If you'd like to see a bit more information on the process of figure drawing click here. Cheers!
P.S. Sharon posted some amazing photos of cedar waxwings on her blog. Click here to see them. Retweet this

Mountain Lake (22"x15") acrylic

The Canadian Rockies just a few miles to the west of where I live has hundreds of beautiful winter views like this. I've managed to capture the cold feeling from the late afternoon sun on the ice and mountain. However, I'm struggling a bit with these foreground trees. Looking at them this evening I realize the snags and branches are simply too dark - possibly another case of the acrylic paint drying a bit darker. I'm excited about moving on to still life and figures for a while. Cheers!

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