Thirty Little Collages - Crow

This group of postings show the finished 6" x 6" collages and also the text that I wrote about the animal and included in the collage.

A row of black walnut trees lined the road where we used to live.  As a child I loved black walnut ice cream and black walnut cake.  But the shells are so hard to crack that the nut meats are very expensive if you can find them at all.

So it was surprising to see our pigs feasting on the fallen nuts, cracking the tough shells easily in their powerful jaws.  But what was so astonishing was how the crows managed also to enjoy them.  Holding a nut in its beak, a bird would fly to the highest branch over the road and drop it.  If the nut didn't break the first drop, the crow would repeat the process until he was successful.  Then he had to be the first back on the road to claim his prize.  Amazing.

The Holiday Challenge

Our art club had a holiday challenge for November.  We were challenged to create pieces of art based on a holiday.  I chose Pancha Ganapati which is a modern 5-day Hindu holiday from December 21 through the 25th.  The holiday centers around an altar in the home with a statue of Ganesh.  Each of the five days, the family dresses the statue in the color of the day.  The theme of the holiday is to bring love to each other and to the natural world.

I made a garland with 11 pieces.  Five depict Ganesh in the five daily colors.  The others are messages of love.  Here are the five Ganesh pieces:

I painted the pieces with Golden fluid acrylics on Strathmore Mixed Media paper.  The gold around the top circle is Faber Castell gold Texture Luxe.  I also used Jacquard Lumiere metallic paints and Crayola glitter pens.  The jewels on the foreheads are vintage glass.  The cords are 2mm silk cord.

This was an interesting project that was tedious at times, but really fun in the embellishment stage.  I did some research in preparation and I enjoyed finding out about the Hindu God Ganesh.

A Collage to Try A New Product

Although I worked pretty steadily on the thirty 6" x 6" paintings, I did occasionally take a break with something different.  In this case, I wanted to do a collage that would use Golden Crackle Paste as a base for acrylic painting.

To begin, I adhered aluminum foil over the top 2/3 of the 11" x 14" canvas, using matte gel medium.  After the medium had set for a bit, I pressed cardboard shapes onto the foil to create indentations.  (I think I could also have used stamps, which I may try another time.) They don't show a lot, but they do add another element of texture.  I covered the bottom third with the crackle paste, getting it as smooth as I could.  I gently smeared a bit of coarse molding paste in the top area.  At that point, I let it dry overnight.

Then the next day I started layering the washes for the background color.  When they were dry, I painted the trees and tree branches.

I cut the rabbit shapes out of paper and traced around them, then painted the rabbit shapes with a few coats of white gesso to give me an opaque ground for painting the rabbits.

Here's the finished painting:

Then - the Edge

I decided to build up some texture on the edges, so ran a "finger edge" (dipping my finger in the paint or gel and running an uneven bead around the edge) of Golden Coarse Molding Paste.  After the paste dried, I painted it Van Dyck Brown, the ran a finger edge of metallic bronze unevenly over the brown - but that doesn't show in this photo.  You'll see it in the photos of the individual pieces which come next.

More Tinting and some Detail

I did some more tinting with the aim of darkening the edges.  And I also added tiny dots for an aged look - using Raw Umber, White, and Liquitex Taupe Soft Body Acrylic.

After I did a few more of these pieces, I found myself using map elements in the collage stage that had turquoise (bodies of water) or green patches and really liked that little bit of color.  I ended up going back to each of them and adding small smears of turquoise, blue, or green paing.

Then Some Tinting

Next I used thin washes of acrylic paint to tint the background.  One of the things I wanted to achieve with the tinting was to reduce the "halo" effect of the torn paper margin around the animal.  I used Van Dyck Brown, Raw Umber, and Light Burnt Umber - all Golden liquid acrylics.

The Collage is Next

The surfaces I'm using for these pieces are 6" x 6" cradled wood panels from DickBlick.com.  I've sprayed them with white interior wood primer then lightly sanded them.  I'm using similar elements for all the collages:  the drawing which I've torn from the paper, a piece of text that I wrote in pencil about the animal, "kraft" tissue paper with dragonflies, pieces of maps, and other decorative papers from tisuue papers, paper bags, or magazines.  Oh, and also vintage gold or silver foil star stickers.

I used Liquitex matt gel medium for my adhesive, and I coat over the top of the elements as well as underneath them so that when I'm done with the collage, there is a coat of gel medium over the entire surface.