Up North

Would you like to live in this little house? The neighborhood looks a bit bleak, probably a long trek to the nearest grocery store for supplies. But lots of fresh air!

Imaginary landscape created from painted papers (yes, I have bins and bins of assorted bits of coloured paper, no piece is too small to keep) and little houses cut from an Arctic Adventure Cruise holiday book that arrives in the mail every year.  The cruises look like loads of fun but are far too expensive for me, and as the cruise company is kind enough to send the brochure, I make use of their nice illustrations. Waste not, want not.

Creatures of the Forest

 Another page from the Altered Board Book.

Beware the wild creatures of the deep dark forest. The noble stags arrived from Scotland on a paper napkin from a Rabbie Burns dinner, and the Swedish Dala Horse was lurking on a sheet of Japanese tissue paper.

And now they are living together in a forest of Canadian maple leaves printed on Chinese rice paper. Quite international.

Tea for Two?

 Another image from the Altered Board Book.  

My collection of fancy paper napkins is far too large, but so useful when looking for images to use. The zebras and the lizards are napkin animals released from their paper jungle.... did you know that all paper napkins (or serviettes if you prefer) consist of three layers of very thin paper that have to be separated before using the image in a collage?

I'm not sure where the teapot came from, but the background is a print of maple leaves on rice paper.  The zebras look quite puzzled, they are wondering where the teapot came from too.

Scary?

She was a gelli print transfer from a fashion magazine, acrylic on rice paper.  A bargain packet of assorted Japanese origami papers found at the local thrift shop provided the floral arrangement, with some black tissue paper.  

I put my scissors and glue stick to work and this was the result, I never really plan, I just let it happen.

Scary? Possibly. What do you think?

Fantasy Streetscape.

I've heard of a watchdog but this is definitely a watchcat.  

The girl came from a fashion magazine, Vogue or perhaps Elle, and the moggie was advertising cat food.  The streetscape is a page from one of those European River Cruise brochures that mysteriously arrive in the mail, even though I have never actually ordered one.   The sky is gelli print on rice paper. 

Suggestions for a title, anyone?

Flower Power.

Another page from the Altered Baby Board Book. 

Background is acrylic gelli print created with a home made stencil. Flowers were cut from homestyle magazines... Chatelaine and Style At Home.... and the balustrade came from Vogue, minus the model who was leaning on it, somewhere in Paris I think.

Altered Baby Book

 No I didn't alter a Baby, just some Baby Books.

You know the ones I mean... those colourful story books with board pages, about 6 inches (15.25cm) square, meant for little people to enjoy,  almost non-destructible. I like to remove the images (medium sandpaper does a thorough job) and add my own artwork.

So I'll post some of my refangled pages. I use all sorts of media and collage, lino prints, gelli prints, pages from magazines, origami paper, tissue paper, grocery flyers, whatever I can find.

This one uses origami paper, gelli print background, the sun is hand made wrapping paper from India, the lady arrived from a gardening magazine. Anyone got a title for this?

More Abstract

This time it's collage.
We had fun cutting and tearing strips of paper and glueing them down to make a picture or a composition, or just a pretty pattern. I ended up with so much glue on my finger tips that they started to stick together. I guess I'm not a very tidy collage artist.
I wish I had taken photos of all the finished work, there were some really imaginative designs.
I've learnt that pages torn from the National Geographic Magazines (known as the yellow peril) are the best for collage... good quality paper and lots of great colours, especially providing a variety of gorgeous blues if you're doing a seascape. I'll have to keep my eyes open for the glow of yellow when yard sale season starts again.

No National Geographic in this one, just plain coloured papers ripped up and glued to red card.
I call it "Rough Sea at Sunset". It' looks best if you squint your eyes. Or perhaps close them completely??? Pinned to my garage door at the moment.

Beach grass? Cactus in the desert? Prairie grasses under a summer sky?
Whatever it is, it was fun to create. 

I love the look of pictures made from paper collage. I have far to go in this form of creating art, but if you want to see an expert at work, have a look at the work of Scottish collage artist Dawn Maciocia. This is gorgeous: