Inspired Work

©2010 Kimberly Santini

Kimberly Santini was inspired by Paper Paintings and she took it and ran with it. You can see that Kimberly has adapted her own "look" and created this fantastic colorful dog. Boy do I love color!

Kimberly toasted me with her OJ this morning because she just recently won the Mutt Lunch Winery label contest with this dog! How great is that, worth an OJ toast indeed.

Kimberly told me she's been following my blog and putting links on her blog as well as her FaceBook about my work. She thanked me for my regular inspiration and said she hopes to come to a workshop soon with a girlfriend. I'd love to meet her and thanks for the good press!

Kimberly does a dog a day, can you stand it? Come this summer, 2010, she will have painted her 1000th daily painting. Wow.

Asheville Apple

©St.Hilaire Nelson 2010

Every now and then, I put an original up for grabs on the blog. Here is your chance! This is an 10x10 demo piece that I did while in Asheville, teaching. This collage is on a gallery boxed wood panel, 5/8 inch deep with natural wood edges.

Asheville Apple
SOLD

Asheville Workshop Photos

Pictured: Sharon, Emily, Suzy, Joan, Yours Truly, Betsy, Karla

The Asheville Workshop and featured artist exhibition at the Grand Bohemian Gallery, in the Grand Bohemian Hotel was a big success last weekend. What a great group of people we had for two full days of Paper Painting. Everyone enjoyed the process and the atmosphere within the gallery was inspirational.

We enjoyed lunch both days at the Red Stag Grill which offered an amazing array of fantastic food! Chef Adam really knows his stuff! The Kessler Calamari was my favorite.

I was tickled to have a room key with my artwork on it! The general manager John Luckett could not have been more accommodating, as was his amazing staff. Constance in the gallery is a joy to work with. If you find yourself in Asheville, NC anytime soon, stop in and say hello!

Paper Paintings Featured in New Book

©Gretchen Bierbaum 2010

The president of the National Collage Society has written a few books about collage. In her most recent one, she asked me to be included. I have a full page spread about my figurative collage process, and a sliver of my rooster tail is featured on the left hand side of the cover!

This book is available via PDF download. The National Collage Society has applied for a grant to print the book, but the grant process is still in progress, so for now the PDF download is available for $12.99. The book is 68 pages and features the work of over 20 artists. There are many unique collage and assemblage techniques in this book.

Here are the instructions provided to me by Gretchen for printing  and viewing the download:

The PDF e-book is set up in single pages for ease of printing your own personal copy. To view it like a book follow these steps:

• Open the pdf
• In the main menu select View>Pge Layout (PC) or Page Display (Mac)>Facing Pages (PC) or Two-Up (Mac)
• Go back to View>Page Display>Show Cover Page During Two-Up (Mac only)

This should allow you to view the Cover as a single page and the rest of the pages next to each other as they would be seen in a printed book.

Thank You Kelly Rae!

Taking Flight ©Kelly Rae Roberts

Kelly Rae Roberts published an art book meant to creatively inspire and motivate artists. As a result, she had some issues with artist copying her style in a manner that was "too close for comfort"

Kelly wanted to clarify things, so she wrote a blog post where she talked about what is and is not "OK" in terms of inspiration. I think that if you have a moment it's well worth reading.

"i would encourage you to consider not selling any projects or paintings that were created by following my instructions as outlined in the book or in the articles unless it clearly deviates from my style. it's one thing to be inspired and to use the techniques in your work, but it's another to copy and then to sell/publish. your heart knows the difference. listen to it." –Kelly Rae Roberts

Of course no one can stake personal claim to the collage process, it's been around since Picasso glued a patterned cloth into one of his paintings in 1912 and created Still Life with Chair Caning. Both Picasso and his partner in cubism Georges Braque are credited with making collage a 20th century art form. It's more about copying published marketing photos, verbiage and terminology from an instructional DVD, compositions, and specific technique right down to the types of papers used to create a specific subject matter. Kelly says it best "your heart knows the difference."

Kelly Rae Robert's art inspiration book Taking Flight can be purchased on her website.

The Most Sincere Form of Flattery

It has been said that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. As it turns out, I'm being flattered!

Wanda Edwards followed my blog and purchased my DVD. You may even remember that she attended my opening at NAVIO in New Bedford, MA and introduced herself to me.

Wanda used to be a water color artist until she found my work. I am glad that she is so inspired by my work that she has chosen to create her black and white cows like my black and white cows that won the Artist's Magazine Competition (scroll down) and her cupcakes just like my cupcakes, cupcakes with cherries on top, her beach scenes just like the one above, and a few other images that may seem familiar to you. She has obviously been inspired and I am flattered.

Wanda recently put together a face book page with photos of her art papers drying in the grass, they look just like the one above from my Hardcover Book and on my blog and this photo from last summer!


I am sincerely flattered when Wanda uses terms in her blog and facebook page like "paper palette" and "torn paper paintings." I'm even happy she's painting rice paper and book pages too. These are excellent techniques that will help to improve the painterly feeling of her work.

Wanda is gaining publicity! She even had a local newspaper article written about her technique. This is fantastic, all press is good press. In her article she says "I don't cut, I tear" Something I stressed in my DVD and on my blog. She even specifically quotes my term "directional ripping" a phrase I came up with to describe a technique I spent a lot of time covering on the Collage Overview DVD and in my Hardcover Book. It would have loved it if after Wanda quoted me, she would have mentioned my DVD and book in her article.

Of course there are many people who have purchased my DVD and taken my classes who now have learned my collage technique. I have posted their work many times on my blog. I am happy to inspire folks, and I just LOVE it when they take the technique and run in their own direction with it. Aurore Brunet did an amazing job incorporating the Paper Painting technique into her own style and her own imagery.

I wish Wanda success with her Torn Paper Paintings in MA and beyond!

Over The Moon Notecards

Over The Moon | 20x24 | collage on panel | SOLD | ©St. Hilaire Nelson

New note cards are now available in my midnight cow image. Glossy cards on heavy stock with high quality envelopes are 4x6 and boxed in a clear plastic box with a silver stretchy ribbon. These cards make a nice gift for a friend or yourself!