A Very Special Commission

Blue Bunting Sketch

A few days ago I received an email from a woman who asked me if my small bird collage "Blue Bunting" was still available. I told her it was with a gallery, but I could do another one for her. She told me that she had come across my collage art while searching for Blue Buntings for her sister. Her sister had lost a son, her only son, and she said that when she visited his grave, there were always Blue Buntings there, as bright blue as little jewels, which gave her some peace in her heart.

I was so touched by this story that I wanted to do a custom piece. We agreed to also incorporate a small southern style church and the name "Michael" into the collage.

I thought this would be a good piece to do a step by step process on. I have not done a piece from start to finish on the blog in a while and this collage is going to be so special that I think you will enjoy taking the journey with me.

Australian Birds

Four Bird Series

24x24, collage on four wood panels, framed together

These birds were inspired by my friend Anndella Bond from Australia. She shared with me many books, DVDs and magazines illustrating the beauty and splendor of her country. I was quite taken with all the amazing colorful birds (and you know how much I love color, and apparently birds...) which were so different from what we see here in the South Eastern United States. Anndella even had her Mum send a package of magazines, newspapers and travel literature for me to use in my Australian inspired collage work.

These are four birds native to Australia, I utilized newspaper and magazine clippings, stamps, and even bits of the envelope which they arrived in. From top left: Rainbow Bee Eater, Gouldian Finch, Blue Wren, and Kookaburra.

It is so nice when folks are generous to send books and magazines, hand-painted papers, and stamps they have collected over the years, or lend inspirational literature! I am inspired and motivated by the personal ephemera and generosity of others in my collage work. 

In this piece, I experimented with leaving some of the artistic process in tact. You can see pencil lines and painted areas along with the collage, I decided to allow some of the steps of my process to show through. The branches which the birds are perched upon are bare wood with outline and parts of the background are pure paint and gesso mixtures with dripping and splattered paint. I have always been a fan of pen and ink drawings which are colored in only partially with translucent medium. I am going to further experiment with the concept of letting my steps show through in the finished piece. It can be very difficult to remember not to collage every bit of the piece, as I am usually inclined to do! 

I hope that you will find this to be a refreshing twist on the small bird collages.

A New Bird

This Piece has SOLD