New Exhibition February 9 – March7, 2018

Very excited to be having a show at South Stage Cellars in Jacksonville. OR this winter. I'll be featuring some new work including the piece shown here. Saturday, February 24th from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm will be the Artist's Reception. There will be music by Doug Warner with Gene Black and Greg Frederick starting at 6:00. Come by if you're in the area. Or stay tuned here for pics of the event.

Collage Sketch Book Workshop at The Rogue Gallery and Art Center

Last weekend I had another Collage Sketchbook workshop at the Rogue Gallery and Art Center. We had a great time and here are some of the beautiful spreads created by the talented artists that attended. Still works in progress but off to a great start. And I'm afraid I did create a little distraction from the main event with a demo on making cards with small-scale collages so here are a few of those as well! 

Here are some of the holiday cards.

Collage Sketchbook Workshop

I gave a Collage Sketchbook workshop at the Newport Paper and Book Arts Festival in Newport, Oregon this past weekend and I had a great group! Here's a sampling of some of the beautiful works in progress.

So inspiring to see each person's personal style come through in the work. This was my second year teaching at the festival and many thanks to Khlo Brateng, Cheri Aldrich and Tom Webb for another wonderful experience.

Great Work From My Fall Workshop

I did a Mixed Media Collage workshop at The Rogue Gallery and Art Center the past two Saturdays. It was a great group and they created some wonderful art! Here are a few samples of some work that was well on it's way.

Thanks to everyone for jumping in with both feet and experimenting. Such fun to work with you all!

The Latest

So here is the latest piece. I kept thinking it was finished (it wasn't). I had it pinned up on my wall and there was something continuing to nag at me. There was one area that just wasn't quite working for me so I kept going back to it and trying to "fix" it. Finally on about the tenth attempt I tried working on a different area which changed the feel of the piece for me and made it better (in my opinion). It also helped me make a few minor adjustments to the area that had been bothering me and voila! I posted it on Facebook with the comment "I think it's finished" (because I STILL wasn't 100% sure) and got a lot of positive response. Now it's being framed for a show I have opening next week so I guess that's that.

Someone asked me in one of the comments on FB how I know when a piece is finished. And to quote Hamlet, "...there's the rub." It's hard to explain it because it's partly based on artistic principles and partly based on a visceral sense of whether the piece is "working." The composition needs to be pleasing and have a sense of balance, and the colors need to coexist in a dynamic and pleasing way; but the final decision is really more of an intuitive sense, like a calm that has replaced the unsettled feeling that something just isn't quite right. Sometimes it can be the smallest of things. And sometimes I'm just pushing to be finished when it just needs more work. At least that's how it works for me!

In addition to the finished piece I've post some of the work-in-progress shots I took along the way. The 5 and 6 are a couple from the end of the process when I was fussing. The others show more of the progression earlier on.

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Pages From My New Collage Book

Back again! I wanted to get these additional images posted before I head out of town again—this time it's a family reunion in Victoria, BC with my husband's family.

I started a new collage book while I was in France. I really like the way these pages are turning out and I'm almost tempted to abandon the book and treat them as separate pieces to frame. I'm still pondering–which of course means I haven't worked on any additional pages since I've been back–so if anyone has an opinion they'd like to post here, I'm listening!

I decided to work with a different color palette on the first spread. Earthy tones and golden, warm hues. Here are the pages individually and as a spread.

This next image is a right-hand page.

This piece really speaks to me and when I finished it, that's when I had to pause and decide whether or not I want to continue with the book or take it apart and use the individual pages. I could even make a diptych out of the first spread. This book is only a slim volume—5 spreads plus cover—and larger than I've used before (approx. 7.5" sq.). Well, I suppose I'll leave it be for now and make the decision when I get back from BC.

Enjoy the rest of your summer; I hope it's been a good one so far!

Through A Prism of Blue

I just got back from 6 weeks in France where I had some time to experiment with paint and collage and finish up a couple of pieces I've been working on. One of those pieces is "Through a Prism of Blue" that I started as a demo piece during a workshop I was giving at  Rogue Gallery and Art Center this past Spring. Below are some images of the piece in it's beginning stages.The fourth image shows the final piece. It always surprises me to see where a collage painting begins and where it ends up at the end of the process.

I also did some work on a new collage book while I was away. I'll post some of the images from that in another post soon. À bientôt!