Coyote Hill, March End

I've documented the making of this picture in video. I'll post the finished painting at the very end. There are a number of video sections, and I'll post them all here. They may be of interest to a few people who are curious about process. In this case I'm working from a photo on my computer screen. If I was working from one of my diagrams, it would be taped right above the painting as well. Although it takes a while, the process is really very decisive. There is no stopping and thinking....it is always go, go, go. The thinking is done in advance, and while the brush is moving.

There are about 4 or 5 videos....I'll post them all in sequence. This if the first one....

www.harrystooshinoff.com 

First Snow, Garden Hill

 

First Snow, Garden Hill

...a fresh, brilliant day....snow fell during the night. Acrylic collage painting on thin birch panel, 8.5 x 12 inches. This blue had a special quality to it, and again, I was pleased that I didn't mess with it too much in the painting stage. Collaging white paper on top of another glued colour is always beautiful to me also (I often use that for snow...and I love how the white paper gets all accidentally but subtly marked up), but in this case I did paint over much of the white collage paper. I generally do enjoy painting winter a great deal...the structure of the land is more apparent....things are more spare....

 

www.harrystooshinoff.com

Stand Alone

 These little groves of scrub trees humanize the countryside...... overcast November. Acrylic collage painting on unprimed archival paper 11 x 15 inches, image size 8.75 x 9.75 inches.

 

Recently the collages have been starting this way: I know the subject, mood, and general intention of the picture beforehand. I go to this shelf which has hundreds of painted sheets (there are other places where I keep more sheets, but this is more than enough to choose from for now). I choose 3 colours in advance from these files (for the sky, ground, and tree mass). I choose a few more than that too, in case I want to play around a bit. But the 3 colours together go a long way to creating the mood wanted, so I go with that. This little selection process, in advance, also makes the whole thing more manageable. In this one the colours painted on were more limited as well, because I knew that I didn't want to paint much. I sometimes congratulate myself if an area is left entirely without added paint (the sky in this instance).

 

www.harrystooshinoff.com

Garden Hill

A very high hill...much higher than it seems here....covered in coniferous forest.....a section from the daily drive that often sparks my interest.

I sometimes ask students to count their decisions in a work, as a way to become conscious that a piece of art can be built.....how many things did you actually decide to do? Here I might have made about 10 or 12 separate decisions....not that many really.....there is a bit of observational mucking about with the brushwork, but that is kept to just a few bare essentials.

4" x 4" acrylic collage painting, external paper size, 5" x 5", now listed on Etsy.

April Field

In the last few days I've taken to finding very simple, strong designs from far in the distance......a kind of telescoping. It starts with the eye lighting upon something and holding on for a while....this happens quite naturally but I've often resisted making pictures of the sensations. The eye instictively and playfully reduces the composition to very few key shapes. I've thought of this idea on and off for a long time and will experiment a bit. I did 2 pieces yesterday and will do a few more today.

4" x 4" acrylic collage painting, soon to be listed on Etsy.

3 In a Row

These 3 images from one session were done yesterday. They were made one after the other from impressions brought back from a walk just previous. I liked the ease of making....with no second guessing at all. I'll do another session today.

Image size 4" x 4", each paper trimmed to 6" x 6", collage from hand painted papers followed by some acrylic painting....soon to be listed on Etsy.

Acrylic Gel Image Transfers

Here is an image I worked on today inspired by Randel Plowman's lovely things, at A Collage a Day.

A Collage a Day, Randel Plowman

I was thinking of project ideas for high school art students and Randel did a very successful workshop in collaging with a highschool art club. The acrylic gel image transfers shown in the top image work very well with collage process.

1) Collect images that are of suitable size for your collage scale. Photocopies and newspaper images work well. Consider the nature of the contrast that will be established with the material you will glue on to.....I purposefully chose things that are dark black so they will show up well.

2) Paint over the area you wish to use with acrylic gel. Put in on a bit heavily and let it dry overnight. If you are considering doing a lot of work this way, it might make sense to make a whole archive of images.....cover them with gel, let dry, so you can choose from many possible images when it is time to collage them into the image.

3) Submerge the dried gel images into warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Gently rub off the paper from the back of the gel images, keeping the material wet as you do this. Set your gel images on paper toweling to dry.

4) The edges of the gel images may get a bit ragged from the 'rubbing off' of the support paper. You may wish to tidy them up by trimming with scissors.

5) Glue your gel image bits into your collage.....you'll have an almost perfectly transparent effect (depending on how well and gently you remove all the paper from the back)!


My image at the top has 2 image transfers glued in. I like this method very much and look forward to using it in some collages. I think my students will also like doing this!

3 Images, 1 Session

Yesterday's work....3 little images each measuring 4" x 4". Going to an even smaller size is sometimes helpful. Sometimes a motif is just a whispering, and there are so many of them!.....'look how these 2 patches of snow line up with each other....one way behind this big one in front....way smaller...but dead center...framed in the yellow ground.' There will be something about such an arrangement that is noteworthy. Making some small things like this helps me to remember that such noticings are important.