Sunday, April 18, 2010

Nature's Still Life #14


This was one of my favorites to do. It is almost all created from old National Geographic pages. I started by ripping out pages and putting them in piles of different colors and values. Then without drawing anything, I just looked at my past paintings and started tearing shapes that were roughly the correct size. I wanted to tear only, no cutting because I was looking for similiar type edges. Then I kept layering more smaller pieces on top to break up larger patterns and give form to the shapes. The neutrals needed something so I used the strips of more intense red to give it punch. When I was done I painted over the background with watercolor and then added texture using bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, watercolor pencil shavings, water sprays, salt, and sponges - pretty much anything I had. I tried to overlap the textures onto the collage areas to provide some softer transitions, but the overall value pattern is still set by the collage shapes.
I should add that there is no hidden meaning in the pictures, I just looked for pattern, color, and value not content. But I like the mix of man-made patterns and nature patterns. So maybe there is meaning in there after all.

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