Adelaide's Collage

Being a mom to a toddler is the most joyful and exhausting experience of my life (I'm sure being pregnant is adding to the exhaustion part...and the joyful part too:).  I still love painting a more realistic style, but when I have time to just let loose in the art room, collage seems to call me these days. Its a completely different process. When painting based on a photo, I have a very specific look that I want to achieve, and I find I have to have larger chunks of time to be super focused. I enjoy painting like this so much, but it is getting more and more challenging as I get more and more pregnant, and Rowan gets more and more active! 

Collage, on the other hand, goes something like this; how big a mess can I make? What shapes and colors are drawing me in? What does my brush want to do right now? I can create a layer quickly and then come back at anytime.

I don't have any idea if I'm collaging the 'right' way, but that's kind of part of the fun too. This is my process right now, but it continues to evolve!

The first layer (forgot to photograph it!) is just splashes of paint; I covered this one in yellows and purples and let them dry. Then I start patch-working papers, using a collage medium to stick them to the canvas. I really love mixing up the textures by ripping some, and cutting specific thing out on others (like the flowers).  I created this collage for my beautiful niece!  The maps are from my Grandpa's collection, and Seattle (where they moved right before they she was born) is something I know I want to have showing through the final layer.  

Then a couple glorious doodle and shading layers! I don't think at all about the final product at this point; I just work with the shapes that are already there that I'm loving, shading around them to make them stand out more, and using white for my doodles and stencils. 

Natalie knew she wanted balloons for Adelaide's room, so we played with sketching some compositions til we found one that would work well on the canvas (referred back to internet photos of the New Mexico Balloon fiesta, they are coming in handy:). I use chalk to sketch out the basic shapes (it wipes away clean!), and then used a thinned down acrylic paint to begin blocking them out. 

This part is SO fun! There is so much going on in the under layers, as the image takes shape, I get to decide what layers show through (like the details in the balloons) and what is going to disappear. 

Shading and detail added to each balloon, a little bit more white detailing, and a touch of glitter (love!) and this collage is done! 

Evolution of a Painting

Loved having Esther here. And loved throwing paint around with her! I'd bought a large canvas before she came ( half off at Crafts and More, woot!) to play on. As we were talking about ideas for it, we decided that we would take turns layering and just see where it ended. There are some pretty hilarious layers.

First layer. Chuck supervising. Esther starts her paintings with silhouettes of people, and abstract shapes...

Maybe a horizon line? Some blooms? Little detail? What on earth. Have no idea where this is going. But having a splendid time. 

Patchwork quilt phase. Sensory overload. Scary green blob attacks female figure's head. Yellow and white fairies wander into top right. 

Both decided it needed three things: simplify, simplify, simplify. 

 Esther added super vibrant colors, and collage elements. She called this the Salvador Dali stage (potentially because of the half face on the flower).  

Bright colors toned down, more collaging (the profile's back!) and some whispy flowers...think we're done! Sometimes doing whatever you want without thinking about the end product at all is delightfully refreshing.