MUTANT, A COLLAGE PAINTING IN MEMORY OF PLAGUE VICTIMS

I'm mad as hell about it, hate that 100,000 Americans could die from Covid-19, and countless others have already lost their lives in the pandemic.  I'm in sorrow, sheltering in place & hoping you are staying safe.

This artwork began on a vintage anatomy chart. 

It was a canvas-like scroll with rods at top and bottom.

I'll show some steps and techniques below. 

Original old medical chart.

Because the virus is rough, I added texture in places.

I didn't want the original warm tones of the figure (they were too pleasant), 
so I made a Dioxazine purple glaze. But I didn't like that either! So I went blue.

A cool blue wash (acrylics & water) for some of the

background, too, and white too. But I also wanted visual texture.

PAINTING TIP: Open a packet of de-oxidizer, desiccant or silica gel (sometimes found

in new shoeboxes). I sprinkled those tiny pebbles into the wet paint

and got a cool effect!

Close-up of part of the painting and collage elements.

I painted a cut-off tree trunk to symbolize all the lives cut short.

I collaged a cut-out eye, heart, and 3 birds into the piece. 

Owls and ravens are symbolic, too, of course.  

21" x 5.5'

Detail of ravens.

OIL & ACRYLIC PAINTINGS, ABSTRACT & NON-OBJECTIVE

PAINTINGS NOW AVAILABLE ON ETSY

MY SHOP IS CALLED "GUHINP"

https://www.etsy.com/shop/guhinp?ref=search_shop_redirect 

Glossy acrylic, 9 x 12 x 2"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oils, 9 x 12 1", "The Bridge"

Primary colors, very Mondrian-like. Oils. 9 x 12 x 1"

These paintings are all cradled, 

with good quality materials, and the design for each

does carry over the sides, so they are ready for hanging. 

 

MIXED MEDIA COLLAGE - PAINTING ON CANVAS

I WOULD LOVE A NIFTY TITLE FOR THIS NON-OBJECTIVE WORK.

GOT A TITLE SUGGESTION 

FOR THIS NEW, MIXED-MEDIA WORK?

STEP-BY-STEP FROM SKETCH TO FINISHED PROJECT

MY ORIGINAL SKETCH...I thought it would be horizontal!

I wanted a limited color scheme of cream, light and dark gray, and cool red in a variety of values. I used acrylic paint, textured papers, my own decorated papers and more.

The photo shown below is in progress.  I goofed by leaving a very dark area in the center.

At this point I hadn't yet decided to finish the piece as if it would hang vertically.

The finished work.

Note (above) the several small, brighter accents as focal points. 

Please comment if you have a good idea for a name for this. 

Or if you like it!   THANKS!

SUE MARRAZZO: GUEST BLOGGER AND OUTSTANDING ARTIST

Sue's mixed-media art is vivid, bold, and appealing!



Abstraction I

Sue Marrazzo is an experimental artist who works in collage, mixed media, acrylic, and encaustic painting.  She has won many awards and believes, “Art is about learning to see."  Her strengths as an artist are with color
theory and composition.  



It's Electric, an 8 x 10" mixed media piece.

Night Reflection II, 4 x 4" mixed media on wood

Sue currently teaches

collage, abstract painting,

and experimental mixed

media at the Art Center

School and Galleries,

Mechanicsburg, PA.

Her collages are featured

in the National Collage

Society’s 2012, -13 and -14

Juried Member’s Annual

Calendar. In 2015, she

became the moderator of the

Textured Art Gallery Online

International Blog Community.

 

(Note from Paula: My sincere thanks to Sue

for allowing this content to appear here.

I appreciate both her and her work! See

more of it at http://suemarrazzo.blogspot.com/)

 

Between Fine Art and Pop Culture: A Visual Arts Educator's Rants and Ravings

Call me a curmudgeon, criticize this post if you will, but I'm driven to speak my mind. And by doing so, I'm wide open to attacks, I know. Yet, art is extremely subjective and everyone has an opinion, to which they are entitled.

As an art teacher, I know that some (or many) people may dislike my creations. I'm aware that much art is made to stir controversy and discussion. That's not what this post is about.  

I am sick and tired of "whimsy" and cute little fairy wings, dunce hats, and big eyes on poorly drawn faces. I'm also disgusted with so-called "art" that relies on words and sentences to fill the page.

The latter is fine with me if you call it journaling or call it a poster...it's writing, not art! It's either personal or commercial, but fine art? No.

My plea is that so-called art magazines (for grownups)  stop publishing artworks with faces and figures so lacking in proportion that they seem malformed. (And yes, I'm aware of primitive art and all the other art movements that promote such malformation. Again, that's not what this is.) If an artist is just learning, more power to him or her, and I wish them luck in their pursuits. But there are standards that should be met, dammit!

To continue to promote clichés is equally offensive to me.

I believe most of us would agree that honing our skills, and then moving on, trying new things, experimenting, exploring, attempting to better ourselves is the right thing to do.

Thanks for hearing me out. I feel better now.

 

GORGEOUS ARTWORKS BY GUEST BLOGGER CHRIS MARSHALL, PAINTER - COLLAGE ARTIST

(Note from Paula, the original Mixed Media Manic: ) I'll just quickly introduce my guest blogster and then get out of the way! I "met" her on LinkedIn, where she is an enormously  supportive and encouraging presence. Chris Marshall is mad about color (or, as Chris puts it, "colour") and texture. She lives in Perth, Western Australia, with her artist/photographer husband and teammate, Steve, with whom she partners in their business, Marshall Arts. In addition, she coordinates an art centre and gallery! Chris works in acrylics, watercolors, pen, mixed media and the digital arts and maintains a sensational website at www.marshallarts.com.au   Now here's Chris!

Hi, everyone! I’m a mixed media / collage and digital artist and I have fun with my art. I work totally intuitively, love to experiment and let my art come from deep within me so every artwork has something of me in it. I love looking at all types of art but when it comes to my own art, I'm happy in my own skin. That is, I don't aspire to be like anyone else and I don't like being labelled or put in a box. 

Blue Mountains Odyssey, by Chris Marshall, features
texture made from tickets, brochures and other  info collected on  holiday.

I just LOVE mixing my media and creating something intriguing out of often unrelated materials and objects. I work on paper (heavy watercolour paper, 638gsm with a rough surface), canvas or board. I work totally intuitively, sometimes starting with an artwork in mind (eg Blue Mountains Odyssey, above); sometimes inspired by something I find (eg Out of the Blues, below); sometimes I just play with materials and/or a technique and see what happens (eg Absorbed and a Hint of Autumn); and other times I’m totally inspired by the feel of a place that I have been, like Intriguing Wetlands and my Ningaloo series. 

Out of the Blues, which began on an impulse when I picked up a second-hand scarf for $2.
because I was so taken with the beautiful colors.

As watercolours was the first medium that I used, I like washy looking backgrounds and the magic that happens when the wet liquids of different viscosities combine; I often start that way, mixing watercolours, acrylic paints and inks, sometimes also using a light modelling compound in the background. I also often use fabrics of different textures in my surface treatment.                                                                                                                       

I don't have a plan for the finished work but I do go rather zen and let the artwork lead me where it wants to go. I often turn the work in all four directions and work on it from all four angles. Sometimes I work on the painting thinking that it will be that way up, but then turn it around and it heads off in a completely different direction! I find this way of working wonderfully exciting and very creative. Sometimes I am amazed by the finished artwork, wondering where on earth that came from.

Absorbed,  Japanese papers collaged onto a heavy watercolour
paper (rough surface),then caran d'ache crayons on top.

A Hint of Autumn,  started by blowing watercolours
around with a straw! Again it uses Japanes papers then wooden
 buttons, dyed fish scales, threads and other bits and bobs.

I do sometimes use words in my collages but tend to bury them in the artwork so they are not obvious. I generally use impasto gel as my "glue" but usually bleed in some colour while still wet so the added piece sort of emerges from the background.

I do like the finished piece to have unity. I personally don’t like the sort of stuck- on look, so wherever the journey of my artwork takes me, I bring it all back together either with colour, with my penwork or with painted marks and repeated patterns so that everything looks as though it belongs.

Intriguing Wetlands, below, is inspired by the reflections, the stillness, the birdlife of the wetlands....the washy acrylic and ink background with twigs and leaves,  coloured wool, combed out staples of wool that Spinners use (here representing bird life),  a bit of jewellery, some paua shell, some green netting. Throughout I try to match and echo the colours so that you have to look really closely to work out what is part of the background and what is foreground, what is painted and what is a collaged. I'm trying to capture the look and feel of the wetlands when you stare into the water and can't work out what is above the water, what is under the water and what is a reflection.

Intriguing Wetlands by Chris Marshall

Ningaloo IX, Hidden Depths, the latest in a series.

Detail of Ningaloo IX, below, shows the dyed fish scales, bits of orange bag

(the white bits are where gesso has been dribbled through the orange bag and allowed to find its own path). There is also some shredded japanese paper  which has fantastic fibery threads. As you can tell, I often use different japanese papers, especially those with long fibres. Some of them go quite transparent when you stick them on so that all you see afterwards are the individual fibres. Fantastic!

Detail of Chris Marshall's Ningaloo IX

Thanks to Paula for giving me this opportunity to share my passion for mixed media/collage with you. - Cheers, Chris M.

COLLAGE PAINTINGS ON CANVAS

This piece appears, step-by-step, in the Stackpole book, 

Painting with Mixed Media.

Collage painting by Paula Guhin.

Another artwork from the same book, below, uses the grid system.

11x14" painting/collage 

See the book to view the steps that went into making it. Images, fabric, text, and acrylic paint on canvas.

THE PRINCIPLE OF VARIETY IN ART

To use variety is to combine elements that differ in shape, form, color, line, or texture. Another way to create variety is to use assorted sizes or to change direction. Variety adds interest, but too much of it can become too "busy," creating chaos. The acrylic painting below holds together well while still exhibiting variety.

Collage/Painting by P. Guhin, Private Collection
Reprinted courtesy Stackpole Books.

The simple diagram here shows the use of various sizes, shapes, and patterns.

VARIETY

New Altered Art Assemblage or Shrine

Freedom Flight

11 X 15"



Construction within a frame.



Collage (in part), as well as acrylic paint, glues, bird's wings, a dried root, ceramic birds, and more. See the rusty metal trowel "arch" behind the figure?

              
           Here are links to other assemblages using altered art: http://mixedmediamanic.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-create-altered-art-doll.html  and
http://mixedmediamanic.blogspot.com/2012/07/altered-art-assemblage-contest-winner.html and
http://mixedmediamanic.blogspot.com/2012/05/assemblage-in-memorial-to-mom.html

Altered Art Assemblage ! & Contest Winner Announced!

Antebellum, 12 x 14"
Assemblage from recycled materials
by Paula Guhin

The construction above is made from an inverted hanging basket, tiny plastic birds that were painted, and, of course, doll parts. I know some viewers will find the mis-matched arms and my treatment of this piece to be gruesome, but I made it thusly because I like the contrasts. Please feel free to leave gentle comments without unkind thoughts. 

Announcing the Prize Winner of Last Week's Contest!

Daisukisan11 was the user name that was drawn at random from the comments that were left for this giveaway. If she is a follower of this blog, she is eligible for the freebie, a largish painting pictured last week. When she sends me her snail mail address, I will use the USPS to mail the artwork to her. Thanks to all who comment, and especially to my followers, whom I appreciate so very much.

A COLLAGE/PAINTING BY ROBERT ESQUIVEL

Bob is a very talented artist living in Lincoln, Nebraska. He very kindly allowed some of his work to appear in the recent book, Mixed Painting Media, available mid-2012, and in another book project of mine as well.

Doesn't this inspire you to break out of your box and try a different format?

                                                                   

                                                                                                                                  

Christmas Art! A Collage to Wish You Happy Holidays.

This 6" x 6" wraparound artwork can be wall-hung or placed on a tabletop easel. I used art papers, ink, and several acrylic mediums (in addition to the images, of course).
It was fast and easy to make. If you create something similar, consider a gallery-wrapped canvas. Tear or cut your papers first and arrange them without gluing, to check your composition. Then adhere them, and to the sides,too, and let dry. Add ink, crayon, or pen lines, etc., and let dry again. Finally, varnish the piece to protect it. Send me your own examples of this tute if you like...I would love to see them!

A Flashlight Foto...Try It Yourself!

Not exactly mixed media, this, but I DO use all my bad photos (the ones that don't turn out as well) as the substrate for paintings. I use clear gesso on the enlargements, and acrylics when the gesso is dry. It's sort of like paint-by-numbers, cheating but not really, since I took the photos.

NOW, here's how to paint with light!

You need a camera on a tripod, a cable release, a very dark room, and flashlight(s) with or without colored cellophane or a filter over the flashlight lens. You can use a colored filter over the camera lens too, if you like, but let's keep this simple, ok?


Arrange your subjects and frame them in the viewfinder with the room lights on. Then turn off the lights, begin the exposure,  and play the flashlight over the subject, moving it constantly to prevent hot spots. It's trial and error, so try one exposure at 15-20 seconds, another at 30-45 seconds, and another at one minute, perhaps. I usually set my f-stop at f-16 or so.
Any questions? Email me! And please become a follower and/or a friend...I need all the help I can get!

New Collage/Painting

This new work is acrylic paint, papers, and fibers on canvas.