About Collage

ROMANCE, pictured here, is a different kind of collage operation from the miniatures I have been posting up to now. It’s a lot bigger, 50 x 38 inches, and painted first before anything was adhered to its surface. The other collage mode is assembling separate pieces to form a whole and then adding paint or some other medium to enhance the array and make it cohesive and coherent.
For the process that produced ROMANCE, after the heavy etching paper was painted and some materials applied to add texture to the surface, the collage application began. It consisted of a variety of materials, some of them new and experimental for me. These included acrylic skins which are delicate films of paint that are removed from the non-stick surface they were painted on and transferred to the painting. There were also elements painted or printed on tissue paper or other transparent materials. And there were image transfers. To read more about how some contemporary technology gets integrated into this mix, go to TheStudio. Another material that was melded into this painting was cut-outs made from painted paper or printed paper of my design and fabrication.
After all the collage pieces were adhered using an acrylic medium, more color was applied in the form of pastel, oil pastel, powdered pigment , colored pencil, graphite and more acrylic paint. This final embellishment is required to make it become one unified whole.
Romance is one of a series of five works I named The Piante Five that were painted for an exhibition at  Piante Gallery earlier this year. Click on Pianteshow to see the rest of the group and read about what sparked their birth.

Click on Butterflies and Tinies to see miniatures available for purchase.

Butterflies

POLYDAMAS, the image pictured here, is one of a series just uploaded to the web at Butterflies. I took the names from a list of butterfly names as the colors are so festive.
These little mixed media paintings are a departure from my accustomed painting style. I started using pattern in high school for an art class assignment and was taken with it. I go back to it from time to time for the pure joy of the tedious repetition. It is the kind of work that calms the troubled mind. There is comfort in the order and pleasure in the color and sparkle.
Some of these paintings have bits of glass or glitter in them. They are signed and dated, and matted and ready to frame. The dimensions with mat are approximately 12x14”. They make very special gifts. They could even be accompanied by a gift certificate for a frame available online from American Frame.
Purchase these little paintings for $125 (includes shipping) through PayPal using your credit card, PayPal account not necessary. Contact me if you prefer to use a check or for questions and comments.

Modus Operandi

Anyone who has visited my studio will tell you that I am very organized. A place for everything and everything in its place. But my collage operation is about disorder. There has to be a visible profusion of possible options; there has to be an opportunity for accidental juxtapositions of color; the brain must be forced to consider heretofore rebuffed marriages of colors. There must be every possible version of orange (or blue or red or green or yellow) (never  happens), a variety of line thicknesses, diversity of pattern - I want and need it all.

I put together a collage painting from this treasure-trove of materials - all of my manufacture - and then put it in the pile of  “resolved, waiting for review”. After some time goes by, months, sometimes years, I look them over again and polish them. Some don’t make the grade; they are taken apart and the parts returned to the “pieces” bins. Some are ready to mount as is, and some get a small revision or an additional “piece” and take on the radiance that I am working toward.

The objective is order; the process is chaos. It is an amazingly pleasurable and totally absorbing operation.

More photos of the work in progress at Modus Operandi. See some of the finished work for purchase directly from me at Tinies and at Butterflies.

Press Release

TINY

There are minis and there are tinies. Vega is a tiny. It measures 3.5” x 2” and is mounted in a 5” x 7” acid free white mat, ready to put into an easily available standard sized frame. Oddly enough, paintings in this size command attention because they are so small and intimate. I have several hanging in my home and often notice guests surprised by their size, getting close for a better look.

Vega is a mixed media collage made of archival materials, mostly acrylic paint and collage elements that I make in my studio. It is signed and dated. Little paintings like this are delightful hung on narrow walls, standing on tables or shelves, or hung in a group of paintings of different sizes. Click on Tinies to see more of them.

I have chosen to show the tinies as we enter the holiday season because they make lovely gifts. They could even be accompanied by a gift certificate for a frame available online from American Frame.

ABOUT YELLOW

This little painting, titled Talitha, is about yellow. Yellow can be tweaked to have many moods. Medieval painters used it to look like gold. Van Gogh made stars, interior light and sunlight with yellow. It can be sunny and cheerful, or with a touch of green, it becomes sour. And it can be tawdry. I like how rich and lush it can be and how it is visible at greater distances than other colors.
Talitha is a one-of-a-kind original, measures 9 x 7” and is mounted in a 14.5 x 11.75” acid-free mat. It is made of archival materials, mostly acrylic paint and collage elements that I make in my studio. For information on framing, please see "Framing Notes".