Collage Day

Thursday was my day to lead the group and I thought instead of painting it would be fun to do a collage.  We hadn't had a collage day in quite a while.  I have a basket of papers I use.  Some of the papers are tissue, some designer , some hand painted.  I even have pages from books in different languages, sheet music and odds and ends I have picked up along the way.  I only keep as many as will fit into my basket so I can carry everything I need in one container.
I brought in several photos, acrylic paints for the under paintings, brushes and the binding medium.  The panels I brought were small but because we were doing an under painting then the collage I thought we might need a few weeks to complete our projects.  Although we made a lot of progress we didn't quite finish so next week I will post photos of our final results.
When I got home I decided to keep collaging.  I wanted to finish my group project with the group so I looked around for something else.  I found a photo Kathy had given us awhile ago to paint and I decided to collage my little bird instead.
The first photo is the one Kathy gave us, the second is my under painting and the third is the start of my collage.

Donna Vines

Original photo

The under painting





starting the collage background
 

The Masters

This is a follow up of our last group post.  As you know Fay brought in some Masters for us to paint from.  I picked Van Gogh. I was happy with the shape and energy of the trees I painted but the color is just s so....dull.  I decided to paint the same scene with more vibrant colors.  This is the start, I may go even bolder...hmm.
Donna Vines

Van Gogh trees
 

Trees

After doing some more experiments from the Carol Nelson workshop I decided to put all of my paraphernalia away for awhile and go back to oils. As much as I enjoy all the techniques I have learned I feel I need a break from all the choices and just get back to basics for awhile.
The last thing I worked on, but have not quite finished, is a tree collage. I used some of the red resin paper treated with the rust activator and some collage papers I had. Originally I used the rust paper with the imprint to represent soil and some colorful collage papers as the foliage. As I was working on it I dropped it onto the floor and saw it from a different angle. It now looked like Fall, with all the colorful leaves on the ground and the dead foliage still on the trees. Hmmm, you decide.

Spring?

 



Fall?

Donna Vines

My First Pieces Of Eight Vacation

Hello Pieces of Eight fans. I am the newest piece and my name is Phillis Holland. I was lucky enough to join this wonderful group of eight creative women just weeks before the annual Pieces of Eight retreat. We headed for the mountains of North Carolina for a week of fun, food, and comradery with a bit of painting thrown in for good measure. It is such a great joy in my life to have made friends with this extremely talented group of women. They are all so nurturing and encouraging that one cannot help but grow as an artist. With the gracious help of Kathy Garvey, one of our pieces, I am finally creating my first post to our blog. I have included several pictures that I painted on our retreat. Now that I have learned the new skill, I will try to keep posting as the paintings accumulate.