Here’s a look at the collage process for one of my recent-ish paintings…
This painting is from a series that were all done on paper. I start by stretching the paper so the end result will be nice and unwrinkly-unbuckly-flat.
Next, I glue down some collage pieces. I usually have a theme (or two) that I’m working with. For this series, it was interior home elements, so I used pages from old home improvement books and magazines. I’m still trying to figure out exactly why collage appeals to me so much. I think part of it is being able to work with something ”real”, tangible, and structured, especially when other parts of my work are more, um, vague. I also like that you can completely cover up underlying layers. At first, I try to work with larger pieces-just to block things in. Then, I add some drawing and painting layers, often creating new shapes that I feel relate to the other elements. (Obviously, I haven’t documented all the steps in the photos, but I hope you get the idea!)
From here, my goal is to continue to merge the collage and paint, so they become something new and it’s difficult to tell exactly how parts of the artwork were created. Compared to other artists, I feel like I work very organically with collage elements, and these paintings were an attempt to take that even further-to use collage in an even looser, more painterly style.
