Working in Series

For the last lesson in Jane's online class, we worked on a modular piece. We had to use one of our piece from a previous lesson and explore it further. I decided to use my grid collage as a starting point and create a series. Each piece in a modular piece is supposed to stand on its own. So I worked on 9 paintings at the same time and just started rolling paint on all of them first.

Then I added some collage elements with transparent tissue and deli wrap and other kind of papers.

Then I added paint, stamping and more collage on top until I was happy with each of them.

I could also use just these four pieces as a modular piece. I really liked working in a series because I wasn't getting too precious about them, I was just trying some stuff and using as much variety as I could using the same colors and design elements. I figured that if I ended up with 2 or 3 paintings that I liked, I would feel pretty good about it. Turns out I like all of them, even though some of them are not quite finished yet. That was a very fun class, I highly recommend it when she runs it again next year.

Working the Grid

This next lesson was about variety and connection and how to put it all together in a grid format. I had a lot of fun doing these because I love patchwork, texture and pattern, and because the graphic designer in me loves grids and the artist in me loves to break out of them. We used transparent collage paper to bring it all together which reminds me of working with beeswax and adds another dimension to the whole thing. I really need to do more of these...