Cells : First sets

Last year was the beginning of a new class called "pratique picturales".    I had heard good things about the instructor and after a long interview, I was able to gain admission to the group.   I feel lucky to be in with so many accomplished artists  who are "sympathique" as well. 

Collage:  marympayne, 32x24 cm mounted on 224gr Canson

 The idea of the course is for the teacher to give a theme and the students conceive of art based on that theme.  We can use any medium unless otherwise specified.  

For the first exploration into new techniques I chose collage.  I have long been fascinated with mixed media after so many years with oil painting  and printmaking.  So this approach is all pretty new for me.  

 The theme was "a certain white".  I haven't kept the prospectus on that first lesson so I won't try to interpret it for you.  But I chose the subject of the "cell", the smallest unit of an organism, as a choice on which to work and the instructor agreed that I was within the guidelines of the subject.  Here are the results of my study. 

  

Collage by marympayne 32x24cm., mounted on 224 gr.  Canson

For this second small collage above I used recycled paper and mono print techniques with acrylics.  The "cells" were conceived separately and then cut out and pasted on a piece of paper that I had smoothed out and saved from a package.   I worked the brown, re-cycled paper with acrylics for the background and glued on the "cells". 

Collage by marympayne, 24x32cm

collage by marympayne, 24x32cm

This second attempt including the two above, I used a substrate of shiny white paper I had in my stock.  I like the effect of white in the background and that blue acrylic ink. 

Collage by marympayne

Collage by marympayne 24x32cm

collage  by Marympayne, 24x32cm

collage  by marympayne, 24x32cm

In this third set I used transparent papers such as kitchen waxed paper and parchment for my backgrounds.  I used some pens and pencils for various marks as well. 

  P.S. Regardless of the tints of the background papers in these photos , I have again used Canson paper 227gr.  which is a light cream color and sets off most work very well. 

 In primping the photos on iPhoto, I chose to be true to the colors of the pieces themselves.  Maybe some "millennial" will come along one day to teach me a thing or two about iPhoto technology so the Canson paper rings true.