It's in the Details

How Now Brown Cow?

Here I am showing more close up details of this work in progress. 

• PHOTO ONE: details my use of Starbucks bags to create the pasture grasses, I love how when you rip this paper, the rough edge is brown, from the paper bag. That brown edge is so much more interesting combined with the green, I make extra tears just to show it off! Notice how the cow in the pasture is simple without much detail, I use only solid white and no type for her spots, I want to keep her in the background with simplicity.
  
• PHOTO TWO: highlights the eye. Since every face I do is some version of a self portrait, I have given my cow blue eyes! I use many tiny bits of paper for a more expressive and realistic feeling here, I never make the iris from just one color or just one piece of paper, the movement of many little pieces gives more life.
• PHOTO THREE: highlights the little illustrations I found in the French text book, especially the one of the horse which I incorporated just below the cow's chin. The French textbook pages are off white, almost yellow and I use them for white areas which would be in the shadow, rather than the highlight.
• PHOTO FOUR: details the wonderful texture of the handmade paper I used for the nose, paper made by local artist and friend, Judy Segal. I tried to save some text that says "in his father's barn" for the bridge of the nose as a treat for anyone looking very closely!

Day Two

How Now Brown Cow?

Here is day two on the cow front. I have started to fill in the cow face and nose, which is my favorite part next to the eyes. The nose has been totally created from handmade paper by local artist Judith Segal. Her paper has such wonderful bumpy texture with bits and scraps of glitter and lint and colors, it's perfect! My next post will show a closeup larger photo of this and other highly textured areas, per a great suggestion by WW.

Building the whites with magazine print, book print, old book print, maps and Connor's workbook pages is a challenge in creating highlight with bright white paper, and shading around the side of the face to a more yellow white, which is old book pages. Keeping in mind all the while that the glue darkens some papers more than others.

Barnyard Friends and Fowl

How Now Brown Cow?

Here is a snapshot of  my latest cow in progress. I am feeling under the weather, so I have stopped working today at completion of the background in this piece. This stopping point is a good thing because it has prompted me to take a photo in progress and explain where we are at this point. After all, I promised to keep you in the loop on the progression on these new pieces.

• The Cow is still in the under-painting stage, she has been quickly painted with acrylic (directly on unprimed panel) to give me a color sketch to adhere my paper over.
  
• The background is the first part of the Paper Painting I work on, this way when the edges of the cow meet the background, they are laid on top.
  
• Since I am not feeling up to all the details of my cow, the background sky was something I could work on for a few hours this afternoon while I watched the kids bouncing on the trampoline from my studio in the back yard.
  
• I have used my favorite free art medium, Starbucks bags, in the green foreground
  
• My daughter's school sent home a great damaged book from the library for me to use for collage materials, you can see evidence of it in the small branch art at the top left

Stay tuned to see how the cow and her nose (my favorite part!)  progresses, her friend in the pasture has just enough detail that we know she's a cow, without making her a focal point. I chose to darken the pasture underneath the cow so that the part over to the right stand out more. Right now the contrast might be too much, but I will wait until tomorrow to decide for sure.

Happy to Inspire

Yarn Artist Tries Her Hand at Paper

Kaite Matilda makes art from fabric and yarn, and she does a beautiful job of it! Her blog Yarngarden features wonderful hand-sewn collages. Take a minute to click and visit, they are worth seeing!

Kaite is from Australia and I found her via my Google Alert the other day. The alert came up because Kaite Matilda has me in her blog sidebar as one of her Favourite Sites! I marveled at how small technology has made the word as I left a comment for Kaite on her blog and she emailed me back. She told me that her "Waving Girls" collage by her profile was of paper, and was inspired by my collage work and an article she had read on my technique.

I wanted to share Kaite's collage to all my blog friends, her work is very different from mine, it's hard edges cut with a blade. I like the use of stamps, envelopes, and the playfulness of the "Waving Girls" Anyone who has followed my work for a while knows I love whimsical!

So, I am thrilled to know that I inspired another artist in Australia to try something new. Technology does make the world smaller. Thanks Kaite for sending me the image to share.

Barnyard Friends and Fowl

Counting Sheep

24x20, mixed media collage on panel

This latest collage in the barnyard series for my solo show at KB Gallery was based on a photo sent to me by my friend, and former art teacher, Champ. 

I tried to pump up the color from the original, I loved the feeling of the two sheep side-by-side in the original photo, however I am ALL about color and that monochrome of the photo really needed to be pushed into having more life. On this one I actually did the Paper Painting process without the reference photo so as not to be influenced in my color palette, and  just to see how it would come out.

Let me know what you think!

Creating My Solo Exhibition

Freckles

20x24, paper collage on panel

Here is the first of many new pieces for my BIG solo exhibition in Sarasota, February 2009. Since the Katharine Butler Gallery already has my roosters, the gallery director thought that exhibition should be cohesive and in keeping with the farm and nature genre. 

I will have 20-25 pieces in this solo show, my hope for the blog is to show the progress of the Paper Paintings I create as I work toward the February show, a "work in progress" on a more grand scale!

As always, I appreciate comments. For anyone who is near Sarasota, the opening is Friday, February 20th.

Daisy Cake on eBay!

Click to Bid

This 12x12 FRAMED (natural wood molding with all hanging hardware) mixed media Paper Painting is up for auction on eBay. It is signed by the artist and would make an excellent one-of-a-kind gift for someone special this holiday season!

Cherry-on-Top on eBay!

Click to Bid

12x12, original collage on panel

This collage is FRAMED in 1.5-inch natural wood molding, it has all hanging hardware and would make a great gift! 

Peafowl, New Work

Plumage

20x20, collage of hand made and found papers on panel

Here is a piece I finished at 1:00am this morning. I am sending it up to the Juxtapose Gallery in Westfield, NJ. They don't know it's coming! I figured Gerri has been selling my work so well that I'd try sending her something a little different.

Being that Art Nouveau is my very favorite art movement, it is probably appropriate that the image of a peacock was my very first tattoo, and remains one of my favorite color palettes today. When I was in college, I created a huge pastel of a full peacock with Cyndi Lauper's head on it. So you can see this has been a long running theme for me!

Let me know what you think of this latest feathered fowl, which is similar but different from my workin the rooster series.

Upcoming Workshops

New Smyrna Beach, FL

I will be giving a figurative collage workshop at Artists' Workshop February 7/8, 2009. The title of the workshop is Paper Painting: Works in Collage. To promote this workshop, there will be a demo on January 7, at 7:00pm at the Artists' Workshop. This demo will last about an hour and a half. If you are interested, please contact Nancy Hagood on her cell phone: 386-690-1281

Sanford, FL

The Sanford Seminole Art Association has asked me to give a half-day workshop on January 24th from 9am-noon. If you are interested in attending, please contact Charlene Hoofring via email: DHOOFRING@cfl.rr.com 

Deland, FL

The Museum of Florida Art will be hosting a Paper Paintings workshop in the spring. March 14/15 10am - 4pm. Pam Coffman is the contact for more info: coffman@delandmuseum.com