My First Foray Into Collage Art

I've been wanting to try collage art for a LONG time. But how? And where to start?

Well, like most things in life, it begins with a blank canvas.

And then staring at the blank canvas for extended periods of time until inspiration strikes.

And then getting brave and actually applying paint to canvas.

And then standing back to see what happens.

Is it any surprise that the first thing I chose to paint was a house? I stitch houses, I sew houses, I scan Zillow all day looking at houses. There should be a twelve step program for people like me. House addicts.

I began with a swirly blue sky, using acrylic paints, which are very forgiving. I wanted the sky to have movement, thus the swirls.

Then I moved on to the grass, using several colors in short brush strokes.

The house and willow trees came next.

And then I set it aside for a month or so. And when I came back to it, I knew that it needed paper collage to really give it the folk art feel I was after. I used papers (Simple Stories), die cuts, and occasionally just a pencil and my paper snips to cut out shapes. I glued them in place using Mono Multi.

And then I stood back and decided that it needed the Word. Because when I create something, and I want it to have meaning, I look for the words that mean the most to me. Last year, "Be joyful, pray continually, give thanks" was my scripture verse for the year. I used alphabet stickers from Simple Stories, and went about spelling the words in a slightly crooked, not so perfect fashion.

And then I put the painting aside for a few more months.

Finally, I decided that what it really needed was some touch up using a black Distress marker, and then a white chalk marker.

Is it done? Maybe! For now, I'm really enjoying the finished (?) product.

And what did I learn about painting and collage?

I learned how to be brave. And I learned that I am a very slow painter. But I also learned that the more imperfect I was, the more freeing the process became, and the happier I was with the end result.

Be brave, my cafe friends!