The reasons I am proper in love with working in Collage....(easy-peasy-easy-peasy & fast results) BRILLIANT to do with the kiddiwinkles...

Cut and Collage is a proper delight to work in.   I thought it might be good to give you a bit of background  about this wonderful medium in order to inspire you, dear readers to dig out the glue and let rip yourselves...(nice pun eh?)

Drawing can be complicated.  Its horribly easy to give ourselves a right-royal hard time if our drawing doesn't look exactly like that thing that we are drawing from.  

When teaching beginner classes (from about age 12 up)  or, when I'm supporting an Artist making a return to drawing after some time... I make it a large part of the session to get ripping, glueing, felt-tipping and painting, building confidence easily and rapidly.

Collaging, I feel, is akin to printmaking.  It's not so much about the marks as the composition, the looking at objects in relation to each other.  When we look at our still-life or view, we take down other details that aren't quite so literal - as we would do when drawing.  

The Cubists were a collection of Artists that worked from different views, all onto one painting.  One of the most successful ways they found of researching their still-life was by working in collage.  It has an immediacy that moved them on in leaps and bounds...to go on make those beautiful works of art such as GEORGES BRAQUE (1882-1963) and this stunner too.'Violin and Jug', 1910 (oil on canvas)

Below is a large piece of work that I did a couple of years ago for my children's bedrooms.  This one is called 'Pooches Parlour' and is just that..  the other is below and is called 'Doggies Day Out'.  

They came about from my feeling really inspired from all the Summer Fetes around here now that we are in the countryside.   Those joyous occasions that look beautifully English from afar, where sales meet scones, and you lose £20 in the bat of an eye, along with the children...yes those.  

I wanted un-prescious detail in the final works and a feeling of one-ness over the whole piece, however detailed they were going to be.  Actually, when I look at them now, I rather think that I made them as master pieces for a set of silk-screen prints that one some level I had imagined making into a series..that would work.

So there you have it, my true reasons for working in collage, fast, furious, and wonderfully liberating.  Go on...make one of your own...MUCH MUCH easier than you think.  x

'Open Art Sessions' for all those interested...children, adults and families.

The children's art classes that am doing after school, are proving to be very popular.  They begin the week after half-term and are going to be small sessions of 8 children at a time.

In fact, so popular that am considering doing another open day rather like the one I did this time last year.

That was a 'Art Family Day on the Farm' and we had a ball.  68 children and 40 adults in a barn on a farm doing art...perfect.  Enjoy the movie..its only 2 mins long and tells you all you need to know.

I have slightly held off doing more events as I wasn't overly sure exactly what it was that I am promoting!   Now I see it's important to do them quite simply for doing them and having a ball.

I can village-hall it, perhaps get the day sponsored, plonk ourselves somewhere and make lots and lots of Art...yummy.

Please register your interest in attending by emailing me info@samanthabarnes.co.uk  marvellous stuff!

Samantha