Nina Allen Freeman » Blog

 handmade collage papers by Nina Allen Freeman

Collage is a complex art form with a long history. For this discussion, however, I want to examine collage for artists like myself, who primarily work in a painting medium. Why would we work in collage? Anyone who has followed my work for any length of time knows that I switch it up every once in a while. While I will continue to work on the non-objective paintings I have done lately, I find exploring other media excites my creativity. Why collage?

• It gives your composition skills a workout in organizing shapes.
• It uses papers combined with painting, drawing and any other media.
• When making your own papers you can try new ways of painting you would never otherwise try.
• Things you learn doing a collage will translate well to your other painting, such as form, texture, color, contrast.
• Collage making is very freeing; cutting, tearing, moving shapes around, gluing, painting, drawing, never tied to one method.

I have used collage in my paintings for many years and keep returning to it, albeit each time a different way. I began by using torn pieces of paper in my watercolor paintings to make texture. Examples of this are rocks, or the pedals of a flower, or in a forest scene. I then went to painting my own papers and tearing them carefully to create paintings. My cat Giclee prints are examples of this. Go to my Paintings - Giclee Prints page and see "I'm Too Pretty", and the other cats.  I have also done a series of lily pads this way. They are totally collage, but hard to tell. Strangely enough, I began this method when I broke my right wrist a few years ago. I found it easier to tear  and glue paper than to paint! I will be working on collages again this Summer,  in another incarnation  that will be seen later.

In my spare time, I am  now rolling layers of acrylic paint on tissue paper with a brayer and excited by the interesting combinations I am getting. I save everything because even the mistakes will be used. I then look around the house, what can I use that I haven't tried yet? Onion bags, light bulb boxes, do a rubbing on something, use things to make prints. I read somewhere that collage artists are collectors. They also develop an eye for objects in their surroundings (also known as trash) that have potential in a collage such as gum wrappers, labels, stamps, eye-grabbing things in magazines and even stones, bones, buttons and pieces of  jewelry. All are fair game in a collage.

This is  really great stuff. When I have been up to my elbows in printed and painted papers, interesting textures and shapes, shiny and dull objects; all that excite my creative juices, I can't wait to get back to my painting. I am refreshed and ready to bring new excitement to my paintings. Sometimes I have learned a new composition to try in a painting, or colors to layer, or because of the collage experience I am now bolder in my brushwork. It's all good. Also, the collages might turn out nice too!

For those who live in the Tallahassee area, I will be teaching a class in September at Brush & Palette Studio on Collage Papers and Painting. See my Classes section for more detail.