Mixed Media Collages

I had fun playing around with colors and textures on canvases this year. The quote is from the song "Enjoy the Ride" by Morcheeba from Deep Dive.

 

 

 

Mixed Media Canvas Collage

This is actually the first canvas I created in what became a series of three that I hung in my studio. The first picture is the original color combination I created and the second once I reworked the colors so it would coordinate with the other two canvases I made in the series. The verse is from "Enjoy the Ride" by Morcheeba from Deep Dive.

Canvas once I reworked the colors

Small Canvases

I found small multi-packs of canvases at Michaels and picked up a few. They are an economical way to create little pieces of art. I save paper towels from when I do alcohol ink projects. I decoupaged those on the canvases for an instant background. In the tower bins at Michaels I found packages of assorted embossed shapes. I painted those and ran some chalk ink over them to highlight the embossing. I painted the chipboard letters so they would match and assembled them all, spelling out BEGIN.

 The puzzle pieces are embossed with metallic embossing powder. The hearts are layers of metal and are wired onto the puzzles pieces.

This Weekend's Art

Mixed Media

I had a couple of Tim Holtz's Configuration boxes and have wanted to do some mixed media pieces with them. Graphics 45 has a Steampunk collection, though I don't think of it as much as steampunk as Art Deco, featuring the art work of my favorite, Alphonse Mucha. I bought the paper a while back since I couldn't resist it (wish I had more now). I worked on these all day yesterday, combining bits and pieces from my collections around the studio. I'm very pleased with them. I just need to figure out how to hang them. I added lots of pieces from Tim's collections - sprocket gears, light bulbs, bottles, birdhouse and metal wings. I also used distress inks and alcohol inks to color the metal and plastic chess pieces.

Configurations Box

Finally finished

Several years ago I started a canvas - mainly to test a couple of new products, a crackle and texture medium. The canvas sat in my studio for a while, was stuck in a closet and generally moved from place to place as it go into my way. From time to time I would pull it out and think about finishing it, but the inspiration on what to do never did strike. For one thing, it is a rather large canvas, so it needed something that wouldn't get lost or look out of place. The mask evening class that I took at EDAC gave me an idea. I molded a large paper clay face and glued it to the canvas. Michaels has a fabulous line of flower embellishments from Recollections called Boutique Fleur. I bought several of the jars of flowers and decided to use them on the canvas. Friday evening I stopped by Aaron Brothers and picked up a few items, including some velvet stickers from Stampendous. I collaged handmade papers, stenciled a few words, added the dimensional flowers, painted some grungeboard flourishes and added the velvet sticker leaves to finish the canvas. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out & will take it to work to hang in my cube.