Christmas Tree Mixed Media Collage

So can anything good come of having your kids home sick from school? Yes, because I got to stay home from work & make this Christmas tree collage. Aside from taking care of the flu kids, it was a good day. I'm going to work on this a little more then put it on ETSY.

Remembering Aunt Dot - Mixed Media Collage

I created this little collage a while back but never posted it (it's in my etsy shop now). The woman is my Great Aunt Dot when she was young. My grandmother, for as long as I can remember, would bring out a suitcase full of photos whenever I would visit. We would go through them and she would tell me all about this one, or that one. She had 9 brothers and sisters so there were quite a few photos and some of them were very old. Anyway, she passed them on to me and every once in a while I use one of the girls in a collage. Even though it was several years ago now, Thanksgiving was the last holiday we spent together. My little Nana dragged me to the bathroom to help her with her lipstick (she had to have her face on for the dinner!) and insisted on having her glass of wine. I hope I'm able to do the same at 90!

Maryline Lemaitre collages

So here it is a week until Thanksgiving and I am just now giving in to the fact that summer is over. We took several small trips over the summer and found some fantastic art. In Old Montreal we happened upon Galerie Desja, a gorgeous gallery. The pieces that struck me the most, though, were by Maryline Lemaitre. Beautiful, huge, mixed media collages.

If you are in the mood for some collage inspiration, Maryline's website is http://www.marylinelemaitre.com/.

Daylight savings messing up photos of my collages

Here's another mixed media collage, a companion piece to the one from yesterday. You'd never know it though...the photos of both came out so different. Why? Because I am not able to photograph them with any sort of proper daylight now that it's dark so early! (OK, if I had any real photography skills I'm sure I would have the answer). I was hoping to get home from work in time to have some daylight but it didn't work out the way I hoped. So these two pieces really are similar and I'll have to take better shots of them over the weekend.

When a collage process works like you want it to!

I've been working for a very long time trying different techniques, following other people's instructions, learning the best way to do things, and I finally found a process that works for me and incorporates the things I like, and (I think) I do best.

The base for this collage is composed of various papers (old book pages, crinkled paper bags), covered with a bit of modeling paste, then a wash of acrylics. On top of that I placed an inkjet transfer design (using Kimoto Silkjet transparencies and golden soft gel gloss). The design for the transfer came from a scan of another collage I did, and added to in Photoshop.

I'm excited that everything turned out the way I hoped! This piece, and a companion piece, is online at http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7830898.

China - Faces & Places Digital Collage

Faces and Places Collages

After doing so many collages that are composed of faces and maps or ephemera from certain cities or countries, I thought I would continue with that theme and call the series Faces and Places. This is Paris #1, and it's on my ETSY shop at http://chrisenc.etsy.com.

Lots of new collages on ETSY

I've been working on lots of new collages. This is one and there are several more on my ETSY shop at http://chrisenc.etsy.com.