I’m posting week two, and some extras. The server for my site was under repair for a few days. There may still be some hiccups. Fingers crossed.
I have transitioned from acrylics to watercolor. The acrylic pieces require so much time. And I had been posting really late each day. I still have ideas floating around, so I may be working with collage and acrylics again before the month ends. These are all 8 x 8 inches, except for the landscape. It is 4 x 4 inches.
My usual M.O. is to make a plan, and have a few themes in mind at the beginning of the gathering. The journey usually presents a different path, and I follow where it leads.
Not the abstracts I had in mind. But still a good month. Filled with learning, some mild frustration (part of learning), and meditative moments.
I made use of scrap paper. A couple of extra wide bookmarks. Some smaller, simple florals. I worked in several sizes. 4 x 4, 8 x 8, a couple 10×10’s. I worked with watercolor, acrylics, mixed media & digital collage.
Below I share each piece, including larger views of a few of my favorites. You will see my 30 day collage, and my favorites collage.
Do you remember the overhead projectors in school? And how the teacher would sometimes layer the acetate sheets to show a change of angles or size. Well that is a simple way to think about digital collage. It’s all about layers.
For the landscape above, I started with a painting. Plain colors & shapes.
In the foreground I added a bit of digital painting for texture and an extra layer of color for the darker areas.
On the front range, I added a layer of an old letter. I tilted it, and changed the color.
On Mingus, I added a layer of pattern. A mixture of dots, lines and triangles.
The moon is piece of copyright free clip art. I softened the color, and added a glow effect. I exaggerated that so that it would reflect on the mountain.
To the sky I digitally painted some texture, but most of that is from the original painting. I added digital splatter, and deepened the color to more of a twilight feel.
Of course for each layer, there is experimentation. Different patterns, different colors. Different effects. Some pieces can have up to 30 layers of bits and bobs.
Thanks so much for taking a look. I always love hearing which ones you like best, and why. I am actually happy with all of them. There are only two I would make changes on. That is amazing to me, considering it took me two weeks to feel in the groove. I did make changes to a few pieces, following suggestions by friends in the group. Thanks so much for your help!
Our September creative gathering marks the close of our fifth year. Five years of friendly, fruitful, fun. Along with creating 571 pieces of art, over 5000 conversations took place (comments). That’s a whole lot of chit-chat and cheering each other on!
Our daily average number of posts was down this round. Many of our long time members were unable to participate. Fingers crossed they will join us in February. 🥰
I’m so excited, to be able to share a glimpse at the fabulous works created by our group. Below is a video highlighting two pieces from each artist. You will also see a collage of all the work they created during the month. I usually do not include myself in the group gallery, but as it is only a video that will be posted to our group Pinterest board, I added myself at the end.
I struggled to make this, hate to admit. 😆 Photoshop changed things, and I had to learn it all over again. I apologize that there is no music track. I have set a fairly long delay rate, to give you enough time to look through the collages. It runs about 4 minutes, and will repeat. These are low resolution images, so there may be some slight pixelation or blur. But that serves to protect the works from being copied.
Grab a cuppa’ and enjoy!
The Creative Gathering Group Gallery 9 23
Congratulations to each of you! You set aside time for yourself, & your dedication has tangible results. You had a fabulous month of creating!
I’m so grateful to be able to share this time with you!
