Fun With Collage

I look forward to Tuesdays now since our TukiTuki Art Collective mornings are about having fun and learning something new. Last week we met at a member's home in Waipukurau where Marie Neilson introduced us to the craft of embossing. My favourite part of the craft was that it involves "Sparkly Stuff".

Busy having a ball!

Marie and Pam had also brought along items to demonstrate stamping. After eeewing and ahhing over a Neapolitan ice cream style ink pad in pinks and mauves we watched as she taught our other Marie how to make a bunch of pansies. I have one stamp which I bought for 50c on a sales table at our local scrapbooking shop so I may actually get this out and use it now.

Two Maries sharing stamping tips

I began a collage which I managed to finish yesterday. Firstly I painted an A3 size piece of watercolour paper with purple, alizarin crimson and cerulean blue acrylic paints. I then leafed through some old glossy magazines (NZ House and Garden are my favourites) for images that jumped off the page at me. I positioned these before gluing with Mod Podge. I had also painted tissue paper with watercolours and these were shredded and added to the mix. Later in the week I applied impasto gel with a palette knife, nearly asphyxiating myself in the process (safety note- make sure the room you're working in has a window open) before adding more tissue and overlaying with paper lace. I also added some tiny gold hearts with a gel pen but these aren't easily seen in the photograph.

"Airs and Graces" collage

I realize some people look down their nose at collage but when you consider that Picasso was one of the first artists to employ it in his work I think they should begin to lighten up and smell the Mod Podge. I probably won't be able to sell this collage but it was a bit of fun and I inspired myself with some new ideas which I can put in my future work. Following the example of one of my friends I will now devote a visual diary to collage and feed that inner child. I think I will have to live and extra fifty years to fit in all the new things I want to learn plus find a rich sugar Daddy to fund them all.

TukiTuki Art Collective

I don't cope well with change but sometimes it is time to move on from situations and to begin new things which is why I started an art collective two weeks ago. I invited seven people from my previous art group, five have committed to joining although one will only be attending once a month. There are only two rules- one is that we're serious about having fun with our creativity and the other is "No Committees"! Each Tuesday we will meet at a different home to do something enjoyable, bring along our latest work for feedback and generally have a laugh. After some discussion we decided on the TukiTuki Art Collective as a name as that encompasses a large area although at the moment the group is by invitation only.

My small visual diary exclusively devoted to Zentangle

I haven't painted in the past few weeks although that doesn't mean I haven't been creating. I bought a small 21cm x 14.5cm visual diary which could comfortably fit two Zentangles on each page. I enjoy working in graphic black and white and these works have been a relaxing change for me as I leave the workbook beside the sofa so I can pick it up when I'm in the mood. I have challenged myself to use one element from each tangle in the following one to allow some sense of continuity. If I really wanted to challenge myself I would complete one Zentangle per day but I am one of the slowest workers in the world and a girl can only cope with so many changes in one month!