In a little under a month, Phase 1 of Project Cornwall begins, with me heading down for a couple of weeks of rental hunting {and a painting course} while letting out my flat on Airbnb. Between now and then there are a bajillionty things to do, so what better time to start a new and potentially time consuming daily creative project?
I’ve been thinking about collage for a while, to the point where I’m lying in bed at night piecing together paper shapes in my mind, so I decided that as a way to distract from the increasing waves of panic at the size of Project Cornwall, and since I have a time container of just a few weeks, I’d create an informal collage exploration project and share it on Instagram. And I’d love it if you decided to join me!
Porthleven St Ives
What
Explore ideas that interest me regarding future painting compositions, subjects, ideas and colour palettes, through collage.
This is not a challenge, nor does it have a specific time container; I’ve given it one for myself because I’ll be on the road in a month and will have other priorities. I also anticipate using the hashtag whenever I make collages, hence my calling it an ‘ongoing project’. If you want to join in, feel free to make up your own parameters if that’s helpful to you!
When
I actually started last Friday, but the beauty of this one is you can start and stop any time, pick it up later, dip in and out. The hashtag is ongoing. I plan to add to it whenever I do collage after this project.
Where
Instagram! 🙂
I’ve prepared a space in my studio with my collage materials roughly categorised by colour, and scissors, sketchbook and glue laid out, so I’m not hunting stuff down for half an hour every time I go to make one. This is about fitting creativity into a time when I don’t have ten hours a day to paint but want to stay creatively engaged, and stock up on jumping off points for future paintings.
How
I’ll be sharing my discoveries, and any tips or suggestions I come up with throughout the process. I have a ton of ideas already. Here are just a few:
- recreate compositions I see in photos that aren’t of collages, eg. landscape photography, figurative paintings, weavings {I have heaps already in my ‘saved’ section on Instagram}
- use it as an opportunity to explore different colour palettes
- create collages based on memories and feelings of places
- explore different types of composition in paper that can act as springboards for paintings later
- make a dent in my insane collection of collage materials 😉
Mousehole
There are no rules; this is a busy time for me and I’m not going to beat myself about the head if I don’t make a collage every day.
People are already jumping in with enthusiasm, and if you’re on Instagram do join in! I created a hashtag, obvs, which is #experimentsincollage. It’s so much more fun to do these kinds of projects with company. And I’m sure we can inspire each other with our different approaches.
What say you? Want to cut and stick with me? Come on over to Instagram and we can do it together.
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I love experimenting and I do it a lot 🙂 Would love to cut and stick with you, as soon asI’ve finished my current projects (web design for a client and a mythological landscape in acrylics)
Excellent! Sounds like you have a lot of lovely creative things in your life!
hi Tara
You reminded me of how I start a new design project. I am an Architect. It is so daunting to start from scratch, especially when Clients do not know what they are looking for. I say to myself, this is not serious..I am just playing… and then I start with anything…
love
It’s a great way to lower the barrier to entry isn’t it!
Hi Tara I am loving the new Artist Inspired course and find researching the artists quite fascinating, don’t have too much time left for Collage but hope to get to it sometime soon.
You have given me almost too much to think about and inspire me just for now ????????????
So glad to hear that Lin! And I guess #sorrynotsorry about all the inspiration. 😉 The nice thing about the collage project is it’s ongoing and really you can do it any old time.
I have a pile of bits in school from the course I just taught. But will see what I have at home in the meantime.
Lovely idea, Tara.
Sending spiritual thoughts/healing/love to you in a time that sounds testing for you. Wishing you peace.
Thank you Karen!
Great idea, will definitely follow your journey on Instagram
Yay!
Hello TARA. You are so inspiring! I can’t imagine creating and
Keeping everything sorted for your blogs and teaching. You
Are truly a generous beautiful gal! Helping us striving artists
Informed and enthusiastic about keeping our work flowing.
I have enjoyed your friendship as I’m now 79 yrs and do need a
Push to keep going. I spend much too much time painting
Realistically! Agnes USA
Thank you for the kind words Agnes! It’s a real privilege to be able to do what feels most meaningful to me and have it genuinely help people. Non realistic painting is my area, so let me know if you have any questions!
This time last year I was in the process of moving house & ended up collaging some of my old collagraphs & etchings onto canvas as a way of staying creative & sane whilst nervously waiting for contracts to be exchanged……….
My process of laying out everything before gluing & photographing the proposed layout proved really useful as I ended up running out of time so was able to reassemble & tweak and then glue after the move.
Currently in a temporary rented place whilst builders do their stuff with our new home and am continuing to enjoy collaging as a way of keeping creativity flowing.
Hope all goes well for you
Collage as sanity provider! It’s clearly a thing. 🙂 I’m finding photographing layouts helpful too – it often shows things I hadn’t noticed that need adjusting, apart from acting as an aide memoire. Wishing you a smooth building process Judith!
This sounds wonderful and fun and just what I need to do some exploring. Tara, you are such a courageous soul to do all that you do.
I am so thankful that I met you and your community on line last year, even though I seem to have disappeared from social networks lately.
Your ArtNotes and musings mean the world to me, they always speak directly to my soul. Much luck finding a new home! The one you have now is lovely, by the way, and that bit of ocean view is fantastic!
So good to hear all this Elizabeth, and thank you so much for the kind wishes!
Hi Tara
Thank you once again for coming up with such a good idea and sharing it, you are so supportive, I love reading your emails/blog posts. I have a huge plastic box filled with papers ‘too nice to throw away’ as I’m sure many of us do.
I love the Mousehole collage above, is it for sale?
I have been inspired by your honesty and enthusiasm to share and bring insight about the creative process. I often find myself being so in tune with what you write, say and do. A virtual sister, always sharing a message at the perfect moment inspiring me to push the boat out further. A mirror guide supporting me to share my gifts with others; it’s delightful to read what you share. It would be lovely to meet you before you leave for Cornwall Tara.
So glad that what I share helps or inspires in some way Dawn!
Well I looked at all the lovely collage pcs on instagram and it totally parallelized me as I don’t understand the reason behind all the beautiful layouts.. I can see that yours are purposeful and there in lies my stickiness lol.. Could be an excuse I don’t know but Tara your’s are so lovely ..seems to be a thread these days in my life.
Sometimes Instagram isn’t so helpful, I know! Comparisonitis is a thing. 🙂 If you’re familiar with painting and composition, the same concepts apply. I wrote a couple of posts about composition here and here. Another way, and one I use, is to take an image that you love or find interesting and recreate it as a collage. Then you already have a composition to work from, and can stray from it as much or as little as you wish.