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.

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.

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.

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.

Mixed Media Collages

Last week I worked on two pieces of art.

The first is this diptych that I haven't titled yet. I think I had some ideas in mind as I chose images and started working on it, but I can't remember now what they were. This is mostly acrylic with collage, ink, colored pencil and Caran d'arche water soluble wax crayon on canvas.