Saturday, August 6, 2011

New Photo Collage Painting . . .

"Seek Truth"
mixed media on 12x12 gallery wrapped canvas

I was pretty excited to share this painting and had to post it today! It felt really good getting back to combining my photography with mixed media. I used my tree photo that I shared for texture tuesday last week as well as its inverted image. Thought you would like to see how this came alive so here are a couple of photos showing its first stages. . .

This is how I laid down the collage. I really didn't know where it would go at this point but it took me a few minutes to find placement I was happy with. I printed out the photos on regular printer paper in black and white. And I used mod podge to glue all of them down. I am loving mod podge for collage!

This next photo is not great but I am still trying to figure out how to take good shots of my artwork! Typically I scan them but the size of this canvas prevented me from doing so. At this point I have added washes of burnt sienna and quinacridone nickel azo gold fluid acrylics. I also added some stamping as an attempt to incorporate my images into the background.


This was at the point I was scared to ruin the painting. The ugly stage almost stalled me out. But next I added payne's gray in different areas as you can see from the completed piece. I really love that color with the orange and yellow tones of the other colors. I also added more stamping with my favorite dogwood tree stamp and stenciled the butterflies on with the payne's gray. Lastly I used my caran d'ache crayons for shading. I like to use them dry and just scrub them out with a dry brush. The trees I extended down the canvas using a black pitt pen.

I feel very connected to this piece. The colors look dark yet dreamy and when I incorporate my photography it feels like there is more of me in there.

Hope you guys like it too!
xo

10 comments:

  1. My goodness this is fabulous. So serene and the color is on point. I love the title as well, Seek Truth is what I am working on in my life... dreamy, yes...it is dreamy.

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  2. Yep! You know I like it!...And now I 'sorta' know how you did it! Thanks for sharing! :-]

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  3. Love it!
    Fun seeing the build up of items, to the final product. Always amazing (even when I am making something) how it goes from simple to deep and intricate!
    BRAVA!!!

    XXOO~~
    Anne

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  4. Hi Cathy,
    "Seek Truth" is beautiful! Thanks for sharing your creative process on this piece.

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  5. I am absolutely loving your techniques here - what an amazing style!
    This is one gorgeous piece xx

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  6. I love this Cathy - has a real vintage feel about it. Thanks for sharing the progress of it too. It's great to see how other folk make their art.

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  7. This is simply BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE everything about it.

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