Stained Paper Collage - Day 5

The final day of class I worked on two collages. The night before  we had gone back to the studio after dinner and I started a sunrise from one of my photos. I finished it the next morning. This is a 7 1/2 inch square.

Here is a photo of the class with Jerry Brommer posing with one of our collages and one of him speaking to the group.

Then I did this 11 x 15 of Tinturn Abbey that I had visited in Ireland last year. I used a small painting I had done on site as well as a photo I had taken for inspiration. As you can see, this one isn't finished yet. We only had until about 2 pm to work on Friday because  they were having Gallery night on our floor and they had to set up and hang all the paintings. When I finish it at home I will post the completed collage.

Gallery Night at Springmaid Beach Water Media is always so great. We have cocktails and walk around to see the work that was created by all the students in the different classes that week. They hang them in groups by instructor. Since we had so few people in our class we each were able to put in most of our paintings. Here are a few photos of what our group did.

My sister, Michelle, who came with me.

Me with my paintings.

It was great to see how different each person did their collages using different subjects, papers, and collage materials. We learned from each other as well as Jerry Brommer. People were so willing to share information and materials.

It doesn't show much in this last photo, but on Friday after going in the indoor pool I went to take a shower. I slipped getting into the shower and landed in the tub hitting my leg, lip, face, and eye. I was a little red and puffy in this photo, but now I look like a prize fighter. My face is all black and blue and swollen. I know I am lucky because I didn't break anything, my teeth are still in my mouth, and I am not too sore. The biggest lesson I learned this week was to use the grab bar in the tub. lol

Stained Paper Collage - Day 4

Today we continued working on collages form our minds or our references. I decided to work from a reference photo of a pond with a waterlily. This is 8 x 10.

We did get to walk on the beach at sunrise. It was drizzling a bit on the way back and there wasn't much color in the sky. I did catch a big wave.

Stained Paper Collage - Day 3

For day 3 of the stained paper collage workshop with Gerald Brommer we moved on to more realistic paintings. He told us to work on whatever we normally paint, or anything we would like to do, but use the same collage ideas for that subject. Since I usually paint landscapes that was the first thing I planned to do. I brought along a batch of photos of assorted subjects I thought I would like to do in collage...I probably had about 15 photos from locations, some photos of paintings I had done, and a few small paintings I had done. It was decision time.

I decided to do the Senaque Abbey in Provence that I had visited when we were in France. At the time of year we visited the lavender fields were no longer in bloom, and I was so disappointed. I brought reference photos I had taken of the building and copies of paintings I had done of lavender fields at home. I put them together. This collage is 11 x 15 and took most of the day to complete. As certain stages the collage has to dry before you can add details in the form of paint or ink.

Here is the painting the way it looked partway through.

And here is the finished collage.

I also started a second painting that I will show you tomorrow. 

Today here in Myrtle Beach, SC we had clouds in the morning and rain all day long. Luckily we are inside working and only need to run from the conference center across about 20 feet to the restaurant for meals. The rain did hold off long enough this morning for us to walk on the beach before breakfast. Again because of the clouds there weren't any good colors at sunrise, but at least today there was a touch of pink in the sky if you look closely.

Stained Paper Collage - Day 2

Our second day in Jerry Brommer's class had us working on florals without making a flower...just shapes. The goal was to use the collage papers to give the impression of a floral, varying the size of the pieces and having more detail and smaller pieces near the COI as with the abstracts.

I started with an 11 x 11 square. 

This is also 11 x 11.

This collage is 11 x 15.

We were playing around with different mats to crop and find a smaller piece that makes a small painting. I cropped the painting above this way. I like this...what about you?

It is always amazing to me to see the variety of different pieces created by students in the same class. We are lucky because we only have 10 students in the class. Most of the classes here average about 22 - 24 students.

Today was not nice weather-wise. It was drizzling this morning so we didn't walk on the beach. I did take a photo from the balcony before we went downstairs for breakfast. That is the Springmaid Pier you can see in the photo. I am hoping the rain will be gone by tomorrow, but that isn't the forecast.

Stained Paper Collage - Day 1

I am taking a stained paper collage with Gerald Brommer down at Springmaid Watermedia at Myrtle Beach. I've taken several classes with Jerry him before, including this one. My sister and I each did a lot of paper staining before coming down here so we be prepared to start collaging.

The first things we did yesterday were 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 abstracts. One in a bridge shape, one in a T shape, and the other in a cruciform shape. Jerry had us work in two colors with the addition of black if we wanted. One important thing was to use a variety of widths. Also to make the center of interest more detailed than the rest of the collage. The COI should have smaller pieces and more detail and the detail should diminish the further you go from the COI. We added lines, paint, and gouache to make the parts of the collage connect to the outer areas.

Here is my bridge collage.

Here is my cruciform collage, which happens to be my favorite of this group.

And my T shape collage.

It has been a long day today. We were up at 6 am to take a walk on the beach. It was cold, and cloudy so we were bundled up with winter coats, hats, gloves, etc, but our faces were freezing.

Yesterday we had a gorgeous sunrise, but today it was gray and cloudy. 

We were in the studio from 9 - 4 with a break for lunch. Then we exercised in the indoor pool, came back and showered and then headed to cocktails and dinner. After dinner there was a presentation and then we went back to the studio to prepare more stained paper for tomorrow. We were back in our room around 10. I'm ready for bed and then we will start this all over tomorrow.

Kitchen Sketches

I did several kitchen sketches for the Paper, Paint, Pencils, & Pens blog since the current theme is "Kitchen." Here are two of the ones I've done.

The collage class I'm taking is really great. Hopefully I will remember to take some photos of the pieces I did today and be able to post them tomorrow.

Instead I will post a photo of this morning's sunrise. It was nice enough this morning to go down to the beach and walk for exercise....and get some great sunrise shots. Unfortunately they are forecasting wet weather for most of the rest of the week...I'm hoping they are wrong, but we already had rain tonight. 

Barnacles

This was painted here en plein air by the beach here in Myrtle Beach. Barnacles is a cafe right on the beach on the Springmaid Beach Pier. It is on one side of the building and the gift shop is on the other side. We had a sunny day, about 65 degrees. We took a nice long walk on the beach, and had time for sketching before meeting with our instructor for our workshop.