I don’t know of any artist that doesn’t love to try new techniques.  My friend, artist extraordinaire, Joyce Shelton, and I were talking about this very thing the other day ~ how we’ve tried so many different things, then moved on.  I used to feel guilty about buying tools & supplies, only work in a particular medium for a little while, then abandoning it, possibly forever.  But not anymore, I believe that we need to keep trying different things, otherwise you might never find the one medium/technique that makes your heart sing.

So began my foray into collage painting.  Joyce had taken a workshop with the very talented Elizabeth Hilaire Nelson, and when I checked out her wesbite, I recalled that I had read an article by her in Cloth Paper Scissors (Nov/Dec 2008) regarding this type of collaging.  I of course pulled it out and read it again.  I also recalled having read the article twice before (I keep issues of CPS in my car) because I was so intrigued by the process.

Now I was immediately inspired to give it a whirl and Joyce was starting a large-scale “painting”, so we decided to make a day of it at her place.  But first, I had to do some homework, starting with an under painting on Luon (thin board you can get a Lowe’s).  You don’t want to get too carried away with the under painting because it is just a color road map.

Then I spent a blissful Sunday afternoon creating what I would “paint” with.  I used printouts of my own patterns, rice paper, scrapbook papers, old maps, pages from old books, bags I’d saved, etc. and covered them with paint, stamping with both store-bought stamps, hand-carved rubber stamps and anything else I had laying around that looked like it might make an interesting impression.  I concentrated mostly on shades of green, yellow & ivory.

Now, let’s get started!  All you have to do now is rip little pieces of paper and glue them down with medium (we used soft gloss gel).  Well, OK, there is a little thought that goes into which pieces & colors :-)

Here’s Joyce, so impatient to get started on her Van Gogh sky, she didn’t even finish the under painting.

What a glorious, fun mess we made!

And here is my finished piece….  (You’ll have to check Joyce’s blog down the road for hers ~ it’s BIG and is going to take some time!

Let’s  get a closer look, shall we?  My favorite part are the dots in the neck of the bottle.  Ironically, that is the only scrap of paper that is not from my stash ~ I plucked it from Joyce’s pile!

p.s. Elizabeth teaches workshops in this technique all over, so check her site and maybe there is one near you ~ don’t miss the fun!

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