Off With Her Head!

This is my latest collage piece done on a wood panel. I used acrylic paint for the background and then used a matte gel medium as the base glue and top coat for each piece. This collage is unique in that some of the elements are hand-drawn. I'm learning that if I can't find exactly the right color combination in a piece of clip art or from a magazine clipping, I can simply draw it and color it myself! Besides getting exactly the effect that I want, I'm also creating a finished piece that has original elements to it. I also used 2 puzzle pieces for the bottom left corner, but colored them to fit into the overall color scheme.

This collage was a lot of fun to do. It's a truly relaxing activity - more so than the drawing, watercolor and pencil crayon work that I do. Collage is an assembly of collected pieces of paper and bits of ephemera that are arranged in a desirable pattern. They are glued to a prepared surface layer after layer. It's a process of adding layers with paint and paper pieces. This process is truly therapeutic as you work with your hands and your imagination. There is no pressure to be perfect and to draw well. And there are no mistakes in collage, because if you don't like a particular effect, you can easily paint over it and glue down another image!

I enjoyed working with a red and golden yellow theme on this one, and added some of my own drawn pieces. Other bits include wrapping paper, magazine clippings, a bit of text from Alice in Wonderland, and a couple of puzzle pieces.

I'll be facilitating another collage workshop in May - probably on the 27th. More details to come. Until then...

All my best,
~ Kate