Making A New Collage, with a Little Video Slideshow

I always like to look at artwork that is a little complicated, that has layers and different techniques and media, things to engage, and to puzzle out. So mixed media collage art almost always draws me.

Although the process was not new, collage got its place of importance in the early 1900's art world from Picasso and George Braque, who coined the term, from the French word, meaning "to glue". Other artists of the era, such as Henri Matisse, an impressionist painter, began working in collage, in works like the famous "Icarus".

Although my recent art focus has been painting, just lately I've worked on a few collages. Not ones with clean, simple lines like this lovely Matisse, but more layered and complex works.

I started this new mixed media collage by first laying down both cut and torn papers, including text from old book pages, prints of some of my photography and acrylic paintings on art paper, onto a wood panel, glued down with Golden semi-gloss gel.

 Acrylic paint, colored pencil, conte crayon (similar to chalk pastels), sprayed layers of fixative, were then layered onto the base layer of papers.

A few more bits of paper collage and a some final subtle mark making were added.

I made a short video slideshow of the making of this collage in the movie making program Open Shot that I am in the process of learning.

The cool music on this movie is called Mirage, and is from the YouTube audio library of free music.


Here are some of the supplies I used to create this collage. Click to see details on Amazon.



 And most important for all the shading:   

Ladies and Gentlemen...The BEATLES!

    A couple of years ago, my eldest daughter wanted an original piece of art from me for her birthday. Like all of our family, she loves The Beatles, and her favorite song is "A Day in the Life". I was so excited to find an image of John's hand written manuscript for that song to incorporate into a mixed media collage for my daughter. (Warning, these are not professional quality photos of these pieces, just what I took at home..the lighting is not so great.)

   The next year she expected a new piece in the series. (I didn't know it was a series.) And I did Paul, and found his writing of the lyrics for "Hey Jude", which my daughter and I sang along with him (and thousands of others) a number of years ago at a concert in Dallas when she was about 13.  (My oldest son was also there; he was working the show and had set up, handled Paul's instruments, and sat with us for a while before the show began.) It was awesome; I cried.

The Beatles In Their Own Write Series so far, mixed media collage

This May I did the latest, George, with his handwritten words to "Something", a song that B loves and has often said she wants played at her wedding.

The epilogue to this is that later in the month we took my youngest daughter R on a long (school night) road trip to Tulsa, amid the risk and reality of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, to see Paul McCartney in concert. What a fabulous night!..even if we were soaking wet during the concert...and we were... 

Paul rocked long and hard, sang all the songs you'd want to hear, was charming, energetic, nostalgic, dynamic...and as her first real concert, all the shooting fire and indoor fireworks during "Live and Let Die" really blew my 15 year old away. (You can see pieces of this concert tour at youtube, and even of the Tulsa concert we attended. With the pyrotechnics.) I was so touched and emotional during his tributes to John and to George, and with the lovely Linda moment of "Maybe I'm Amazed", such a wonderful song, but my most emotional and moving moment was during the sing-along portion of "Hey Jude", once again, looking over and seeing R and Edward singing along. I felt teary, exulted, grateful, included in a meaningful community experience, full of love.

House of Hope and Striving Collage

House of Hope and Striving,  Collage by Anita Barnard

Here is another recent collage with a different interepretation of a house. The piece explores the theme of Vincent Van Gogh's yellow house in Arles, France and the great hopes he had of creating an artists' community there. The collage is 8x10 on 11x14 Bristol board paper. It is comprised of found and created papers, text, images, ink and acrylic paint. Two examples of Vincent's handwriting from his correspondences appear in the piece, including the larger word "Tristement" in the roof. Sadness.

I worked on the piece on and off for over a week, then I just let it sit for another week, sometimes taking it out and looking at it, or arranging the last couple of elements on it. Finally I quit asking Edward and my youngest daughter whether I should add the last bits or not and just glued them down. I don't know why some pieces of art feel more certain, and others are dithered over for a long time, but I am happy with the decision I made. (Which is good, because you can always add something later, but it's a lot more problematic to rip something out.)

It was an interesting piece to work on, and sometimes a somewhat melancholy process, as I spent a lot of time thinking about Van Gogh's work and his life while working, as well as about the life and ideas of artists in general.

An archival print or a poster of House of Hope and Striving are available on Zazzle.

The images of wings came from The Graphics Fairy, a great site for vintage images.

Two New Collages - Houses and Birds

Collage with Mixed Media 8x8 inches

I've been having a lot of ideas for some little collages lately. Today I just finished up the images of two from last week. I keep thinking about house and home and all that means and that images of houses can symbolize and bring up emotionally for us. Like some of my other recent collages these two have the house image...and also some birds that crept in, which is not unusual in my collage work lately.

Collage  8x8 inches

 

The two pieces are very different in tone and color, one being more serene and pastoral, closer to a traditional landscape, and the other with more deep color and contrast, and as Edward said, more masculine "plus it has all those numbers." Now I'm not very into numbers, being more of a language and art person, but as a former quilter and sometime woodworker, these images of vintage tape measures and rulers just appealed to me.

Mixed Media Collage on Wood

Small Stories 10 by Anita Barnard

I'm posting some more of my Small Stories series of little collages.

Small Stories 11

These are about 51/4 x 5 1/4 inches x 3/4 inch thick so they can hang on the wall or sit on a shelf.

Small Stories 12

Small Stories 14  (Sorry, this picture is unedited.)

The old English garden urn image is from Karen.

Some of the Small Stories collage series

Linked here.

More Small Stories, Mixed Media Collage

First of all -

Happy Halloween!

"Orange Man" carved by Edward

I've just finished straightening up in GIMP some more of the Small Stories series of small collages on poplar wood panels. This batch starts the ones that I made most recently, from mid-September to mid-October. Sometimes it seems that tinkering around with the images to get the colors and everything right takes longer than making the pieces...today is one of those times.

Small Stories 10

Small Stories 11

Small Stories 12

Small Stories 13

Thanks once again to the Graphics Fairy for the vintage hand in the last collage.
This post i linked here.

Small Stories, Collage on Wood

 

Small Stories 5, Mixed Media Collage

Today I'm posting the rest of the Small Stories series of fun little mixed media collages on wood that I did in the spring. (I have a bunch more to get the imaging right on that I did over the last couple of months. I seem to work in spurts as far as different projects go...a few weeks or months of intense collage or glass fusing or mosaics or....)

Small Stories 6 Mixed Media Collage

These are 5 1/2 inch square on poplar board that I cut, sanded down and sealed with a couple of coats before I started painting and pasting.

Small Stories 7, Mixed Media Collage

Linked to collections here and here.

Archeologia and Collage

Roman Layers (maybe) 8x10

Here's another collage I created earlier this week. Roman Layers is just the working title...I had to  name the image file something...but it does convey a sense of my thoughts while I was creating the piece.

When I was in Rome with my friend Michelle a few years ago, we visited a church just a few blocks from the coliseum, the Basilica di San Clemente,

Fresco of San Clemente in the lower church

Mithraeum, designed to look like a cave

a 12th century basilica that is built on top of a 4th century church, still underneath, with many existing frescoes. Then we descended further to a 3rd century Mithraic temple.


It amazed and still amazes me how all these layers of history exist. How the present day church is at street level, and the many centuries of all that preceding life has moved down, down...


I was definitely thinking about that trip and those reflections about the layers of history when I was designing and making this collage.

As well as images and bits of painting, the piece also includes text in Italian from two sources and Latin text. Archeologia, Italian for archeology,  is a possible title for the collage, as well as the Latin,
Scientia Antiquitatis. Preferences and suggestions are welcomed.

This post, and lots of other stuff to look at,  is linked to this blog .


Update: "Roman Layers" is now up on my shop.

Bicycles and Peace, the Collage

Bicycles and Peace, No. 9

This is the collage I made this weekend. It is not the ninth in a series, that's just part of its name.

Today I am going to do something I never do: explain the artwork, or at least tell about my idea and some of the elements in the collage. Edward and Damon tease me at art shows when people ask me what was my inspiration for or the meaning of a piece. (And I wince.) Edward's advice and our running joke is, no matter which painting or collage, I should reply that it is about man's inhumanity to man.

My thoughts about this collage started when I found the bit of hand written manuscript of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, his ninth revision. That is one of the two No. 9 references. My second inspiration came from recalling the story that Tolstoy learned to ride a bike at age 67, which frankly doesn't seem all that old anymore, and thoughts about how that anecdote is used for encouragement etc.

You can see the print of the manuscript as the background of the vintage bicycles image. Other elements include the peace symbols, the dove and the olive branch, and an image of a certain musician who is often associated with peace. Plus something about riding a bicycle seems peaceful to me, as well as earth friendly and all that. On the dark blue paper in the top left is a ghost image of Leo.

The collage on the screen appears just a tad lighter or less saturated than in real life.

Vintage bicycle images are from The Graphics Fairy blog. 

This piece is now available in my etsy shop, plus I have had a couple of prints done...just ask.

Mixed Media Collage on Wood...Time for Another Arts Goggle

My table covered in art supplies
and new and in progress small works on wood panels

With my daughter back in school and while waiting to hear back from the Arts Goggle folks, I have brought out the art stuff and started painting, cutting and pasting again.

In the process I discovered a great blog, The Graphics Fairy, with thousands of royalty free, and free free, vintage images. Karen posts a new image or images every day, like these cute French chairs which she is offering in several different colors.

One of them is sitting in the far left in my photo above, with the cushion hand-colored, just waiting for the right inspiration to become one of the fun little collage pieces.

Fall Arts Goggle will be Saturday, October 8th from 4-10pm in Fort Worth's near south neighborhood.

Mixed Media Collage Artist Darcy Altaville

She Dreamed of Houses
print available from Etsy

Darcy Altaville of artnjoy combines traditional and digital collage techniques to come up with these fun and colorful mixed media collage paintings.

I asked her a few questions about her art, her techniques and inspiration:


What inspires you to create and/or how did you start out?

I have always created art since I was a child, encouraged by my Dad who was an artist in his spare time. We needed an extra income while raising my three kids, and so I decided to put my art on line, after hearing how wonderful etsy is. I do prints of my work so that they can be affordable and enjoyed by the masses, not just people who have tons of money to spend on original art.
I mostly get inspired by emotions, music, words and the colors they evoke.


Tell a little about your art process and technique.

The process is ever changing. But I have always loved Mixed Media Collage work. Just getting down and dirty with paint, paper and everything else at hand. Which probably accounts for some of the diversity in my work!
I recently expanded into doing Artful Paper Gifts and Goodies, since my hub was out of work for quite some time and we have been hanging by threads.
It's a way of providing my artful touch to pretty, functional, and affordable items that people can use everyday. Important in these economical times.


When asked for thoughts about or the inspiration for one of her pieces of art, Darcy commented on "The Gift" pictured below:


Oh my images just sort of evolve and take on a life of their own. "The Gift" started off with the iconical head and evolved from there into a presence that I felt was somewhat spiritual. I came across the words "The Gift; Sent Forth By God's Blessing" in an old hymnal and they seemed to fit perfect. It also touches me personally, because I feel that God has always watched out for me and has continued to Bless me, even during these tough times.



Darcy was raised in Manhattan, NY and went to Art School. "Though I never really pursued my art on a any professional level. Sounds cliche, but I got married and was blessed with three wonderful, kind, talented children who are always encouraging about my artful endeavors. I now live in Pennsylvania, where my days are pretty much that of a typical Mom. Though as my kids always remind me...I'm anything but. I guess I'm a bit more colorful, eccentric and out of the box...pretty much like my Mixed Media Art!

"I also love to read, listen to music and eat sushi! Though these days, Frozed Lo mein is a staple on the menu! The life of an almost starving artist and her family. Filled with ups n downs, and art, but always blessed!"


Darcy's work can be found and purchased from her Etsy shop.

Imagine Peace and Whimsical Art

Imagine all the people living life in Peace.

Happy John Lennon's birthday to all. I was just wondering if it is just coincidence that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today (or at least the news of it came out this morning.) Either way, accident or intent, I like it.

Yesterday and today I have been working on a new series of small collages. The idea came to me in the wee hours of the morning when, as usual, sleep was elusive. I was picturing whimsical images full of trees, leaves, flora and fauna, light-hearted fairly simple pictures done with painted and drawn backgrounds in happy colors.

Of course I still have the camera to computer problem, so I can't post photos of what I've come up with so far.

So, I plugged "whimsical" into the ETSY search engine under the category Art: Mixed Media and came up with this cute print from an original painting by Sascalia.

Just thinking

You can find lots more of her prints at her Esty shop.

Two More New Collages in Blue

Here are two more of the little collages I have been ding lately. I finally set up the tripod and photographed them, but I can tell that I need to go in and up the brightness a little more. I think all the adjusting and tinkering with the light and color values and whatnot to get my images to look right takes as much time as any thing else. I get really frustrated sometimes just trying to get the photo to look like the collage or painting. The white/silvery/grey areas on these pics are just a little too dark.

The collages are pleasing...you'll just have to trust me. ;-) Well, they are pleasing to me, but then they're blue; of course they are.


I'm making no art today. R is home today after being up a lot of the night being sick. She's feeling better and wanting to eat now. I'm thinking about all the cool vegetables we got at the Fiesta Mart (fabulous produce section!) yesterday and trying to decide on something bland and soothing to make for dinner tonight.

Collages : Two New with Red

I tried putting these collages on the scanner, and I have had good results doing that with small pieces of artwork before, but I think with as much time as I spent after tinkering with the images , I could have just set up the tripod and photographed them.







I'll still have to do that; the color tones or saturation or intensity...or something...isn't quite right.

These, like the previous four, are 6x6 inches on a 10x10 heavy watercolor paper.

New Collages

I've been painting for the past several months and not doing any collage making, but I guess I got the collage bug from artist Mary Buek, whose blog I read. She usually does paintings, and posts a picture of a daily piece of artwork. The last month or 2, she has been on a collage binge, and I have been looking at her experimentations and works of collage art almost everyday.

So, the last couple of days I got out lots of sheets and small bits of paper, including a number of painted and otherwise marked papers, and created some collages. The pictures are not very good, pretty bad actually, but show the general idea of what I am doing.





I made the mistake of using colors I like in the last two collages, and when I finished I started thinking, Hmm, I kinda like these. Bet they'd look nice framed and hanging in my living room.

I learned a long time ago to beware of making much blue jewelry; I always want to keep it.

Happy Halloween, Samhain and Storybook Parade

Today's work of art:

Watch out or you'll get hexed.
R as Bellatrix LaStrange
at the school Storybook Parade

I don't have anything new ready to post, but I do have this small collage from a year or so ago in seasonal colors - much more orange than I usually use.

Fabric and paper collage with
acrylic painted papers 5x7

Also, check out my Etsy site for views of Divination, an acrylic on canvas diptych I painted a few weeks ago. (One of the ones I was struggling to photography well the other day.)

May you all get all the candy corn and chocolate you wish for!