Painting Collages
April 12, 2021
Magazines filled with unique photographs with a variety of graphics are ideal for collages. We have the Financial Times delivered to our house, and three weekends out of the month the glossy magazine How To Spend It is included with the paper. Basically, it’s full of veiled advertisements with a few feature articles on wealthy individuals or niche endeavors. I don’t know if anyone is influenced by the magazine for its own sake, but for me, it offers weekly inspiration for my collages.
I do my collaging in one sitting. First, I cut images, designs, and patterns from the pages of the magazine and pile them to the side. I don’t consciously think about what I’ll cut but after I grab a few images to the pile I start to instinctively narrow my focus. In the end, I cut more than I use. If there are any leftover images I throw them away so as to not influence my next collage-cut session. Once the pile is sufficient I take my pre-drawn outline, either a measured shape or the entire surface of a paper, and assemble.
This past week I painted a few of the collages I made recently. For me collaging is an intuitive process, like journal writing or dancing. I wanted to make it part of my studio painting practice so I completed four 6x6 inch oil on arches paper copies of the original collages of the same size. The process was fun, fast and offered me the technical challenge of rendering various images juxtaposed next to each other. Telling stories with images is a fun part of being an artist, and collaging is one of the best open-ended ways to create a story.
