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!
This blog documents my creative journey with watercolor, mixed media, & oil painting. I'm enjoying myself immensely and hope you find something uplifting in my paintings and/or their stories.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Why are you doing collage? What about painting?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Figures - so enjoyable
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Collage 180 degrees...
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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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Saturday, February 21, 2009
Collage again
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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!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Figure unit
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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.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Mountain Lake (22"x15") acrylic
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Friday, February 13, 2009
Work in Progress...
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Collage work...
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I continued to putter at this collage during class yesterday and again today. I'm excited about the direction (figures -yikes!) and the subject. Thanks to all my classmates and Sharon for comments and suggestions made during the critique we did yesterday (color dominance was a big issue)! It made me step back and think about what I am trying to say with the painting. I did have some identified figures a couple of days ago but the concept needed firming up... and I'm pretty happy with the changes I've made so far.
This work speaks to me about the stuff of life. Embracing life, loss, hope, blessings, the future, sharing, caring... before I start writing poetry I'll sign off. Enjoy!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Abstraction with Collage
Friday, February 6, 2009
sketching and doodling
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Next stop - color studies of the same subject...
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
DVD Review - Ann Baldwin's "Telling Stories with Collage and Paint"
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Back to the DVD... Ann is really a mixed media painter as opposed to a straight collage artist, so this live workshop video was also a good source of information about working with acrylic paints & mediums. She has a fun and fearlessly loose style based on her belief that virtually anything that happens in the painting that she doesn’t like can be changed. This feels quite freeing for me after working hard to protect the whites and avoid over painting in watercolor.
During the course of the nearly 2 hour workshop, Ann completes a demo painting. She begins with collage, then glazes, textures, re-glazes, and repeats until she is satisfied with the result. Ann shares her thought process as she works through the demo. I found her responses to what she liked and didn’t like, why she put elements in a particular spot and why she abandoned the original theme to follow another most fascinating.
Here are a few specifics that I found helpful:
· Discussion of how to avoid copyright issues – in particular a link to the Copyright Information Center at Cornell University.
· Ann spends some time on the computer upgrading smaller lower quality images to ensure high enough quality for her larger format pieces. She talks about alternatives for this work including incrementally photocopying, printing digitally, etc.
· Golden products are used throughout and since I haven’t worked with many of these products, I found her descriptions of how to work with them useful.
· Nitrile gloves – Ann uses them all the time because many of the pigments she uses are toxic. Also, she finds they give her the freedom to manage all the mucking about in the paints that she likes to do.
· The slowing down stage – I’ve never heard it called this but it was nice to know that others have to force themselves to slow down and even shelve a piece for hours/days while their brain catches up. This happens in every painting I do. It can take anywhere from a few minutes onward to figure out the next move – lots of paintings I’ve started are still stuck and I’m beginning to believe that this is normal. It’s a nice feeling to have the “FINISH IT” pressure off.
· Ann critiques the workshop students’ work and, although I always find these helpful, I’m used to a more direct approach to pointing out problems. Over the past 3 years I’ve benefited most from hearing what could have been done to avoid, or what could be done to correct, etc PROBLEMS in my works as well as in the work of other students. Of course the good must be praised and Ann does a lovely job of that. Possibly the critiques that I would have found most helpful were simply edited out...
I certainly enjoyed this DVD and I’m looking forward to putting the inspiration to good use. As a result of this DVD, I have added half a dozen items to my art “wish list”... Good thing my birthday is coming up ;) Cheers!
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