"Putting on the Ritz" Inspired by Klimpt

"Puttin on the Ritz"

36" x 48" 

Torn Magazine

On Gallery Wrapped Canvas

Contact the Artist for Purchase

After returning from Vienna, where we saw some of Gustav Klimpt's work in the Belvedere Museum and at The Secession, I was inspired to do a very large collage using gold. You will recall that Klimpt's painting of Adele Block Bauer, a Jewish woman, was ironically confiscated by Hitler's art team from her husband's home some year's after Adele's death. After the war, it was returned to Austria where the Belvedere believed they had a claim to the painting. You may have seen the movie, "Woman in Gold" which tells the story of Maria Block Bauer suing for the return of the painting and others to the family. Bob and I had the good fortune to see the painting when it was displayed briefly  in the LA County Museum in 2006 before being sold to the Neue Gallery in NYC where it remains on permanent display. 

My material of choice was not gold leaf, but simple magazine papers. I saw an opulent evening coat, which my imaginary woman wears in my collage. I finished the initial image about a week ago, and then came the really fun part, modifying and integrating the painting. We have a dreary Sunday here, so it was a good afternoon to do art. I decided that the bottom of her dress needed enhancing with more black and the red background. I also added touches of red throughout the painting, including the woman's earrings, headband, and choker. She already had that incongruous red vertical line on her throat, which I decided I liked.

Since visiting Klimpt's work, I have read three books related to Klimpt and "Woman in Gold." Though an admirable artist, Klimpt's personal life was not to be emulated. The book that inspired the movie has much more information about Vienna art and high society, and the Block Bauers who suffered tremendously at the hands of the Third Reich.

"Enough about Me" Pairs Well with Perfect Match

"Enough About Me"
16" x 12" Torn Paper Collage

 

One way to pair with "Perfect Match"

Reverse pairing

 

Between travels I managed to complete a collage for my wine series. This one features red wine and a variant on the blue poppies I saw at Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC. I reversed the background, but used similar colors and design elements so that it would pair well with "Perfect Match."

 

I find it easiest to put down a basic background first, then start with the large elements and work to small. Finally, I continue to work the table and the background until I achieved harmony and interest. I also have to work to vary the edges, a bit of a challenge for me, so everything is not hard edged. The yellow orange color was really necessary to add a lively touch, and I like using checks and polka dots to pull things together.

 

A change of scenery will take me to a dude ranch in Colorado for a Stephen Quiller plein air workshop featuring Fall in the San Juan Mountains. I expect to see colorful Aspens. I hope to have a few paintings to share when I return.



 

 

More Collage with Perfect Match

"Perfect Match"
12" x 16" Recycled Paper Collage

In Santa Clara County, we are surrounded by many wineries, some well-known, and many small, high quality businesses, often family-run. I wanted to honor the many beautiful places that offer wine tasting. The design of this piece is from imagination. I took out two of Reidel glasses designed for some white wines and used them as my models. Then I had to think how the white wine would look against a deep blue background. It was fun to get the translucent look and the highlights.

I also called upon my recent visit to Buchart Gardens in Victoria, BC. I took photos of some gorgeous pale blue poppies. They were the inspiration for the flowers on the table. The blue and white definitely needed a pop of color, so I added some random shapes in orange-yellow.

I finished off the piece by adding interesting colors and textures. I find that I cannot finely plan the final piece. Each piece applied changes the relationships and influence the choice of anything that follows. That is part of the challenge and the satisfaction in doing these collages.

Happy New Year 2015!

"The City That Never Sleeps"
36" x 36" Torn Magazine Collage
$2000

Happy New Year, my blog friends. It's time to get back on the wagon after a busy December with a Hawaiian vacation and many Christmas activities.

I am currently focusing on collage, though I still paint. This piece took a while and went through a couple iterations. Here is the original piece that I thought was done until sharing with my critique group.



One of the very accomplished artists noted the white was isolated on one side and another said remember how the master makes the collage emerge from the background. So I bravely went back and collage out the white. I like the result, which is a bit more dramatic.

I will catch up with my blog friends as I get back in the swing of things.

Magazine Collage of San Francisco

 

"City by the Bay"

14" x 18" magazine collage on canvas

 

 

Begun in November, the piece languished in my art room partially complete. Attic cleaning, travel, dancing, bike riding, and life, all took precedence. Finally a couple days ago, I propped it up on the easel, tossed the drop cloth on the floor, and made a mess.

 

From the late 80s until 2000, I had an old, but sturdy, boat at Pier 40. After Gary died, I realized I did not want to learn marine mechanicals, and turned it over to my partner. It did not have red sails to fly in the sunset, but "Elation" was our home away from home for a number of years. I love the city -- the chaos, the noise, the music, the fashions, the busy people, the bike riders, Market Street, the Transamerica Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the museums, even touristy Fisherman's Wharf. I hope I captured some of that here.

French Sunflowers

"Tournesol"

12" x 9" Torn Magazine on Canvas

After completing my sunflower collage, which is quite large, I decided to do a couple small pieces. I will be participating in Silicon Valley Open Studios (SVOS) in May and would like to show  my watercolors and collages. I am thinking a few smaller pieces might appeal to people who don't have large walls for art. I am in the registration process so you will not yet find me on the SVOS website. Check back after the first of the year.

I chose a French theme for this one, inspired by a page from Wine Spectator magazine. I found that most of the magazine is printed on a natural, not glossy surface. I made a failed attempt to use one of the sheets with a wonderful Eiffel Tower on it. Back to my glossy papers I went. A few of the ads in the same magazine were printed on lovely glossy paper, so I chose one that featured "Cherry Noir." The word "Noir" is mostly under the sunflower petal. I included some French, some of which I wrote onto the black background, and some done on the computer.  I also drew my own Eiffel Tower using Sketchbook. I envision this Sunflower growing in a narrow space next to an old building near the tower.

After a good night's sleep, I decided to vary my edges more and added some papers and text. I added a few random pieces of a women's face under a veil. To the artist, it's a reminder of the hose worn by dancers I once had the pleasure of seeing perform at Moulin Rouge in Paris. To viewers, it's likely decorative.

You can find some fun pieces - sheep in the dark center of the sunflower? colorul graphics of buildings in the stem? the French word for sunflower, "Tournesol"? a cherry topped cocktail? "Paris"? I am now mulling over plans for my final piece of the trilogy (the collages are a three-part novel, not a tryptic painting).

"Pure Panache" in Torn Magazine on Canvas

 

"Pure Panache"

22" x 28" Torn Magazine on Canvas Collage

Just before Halloween, I stopped by Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch, a few miles down the road,  and was so taken with the families having fun. Those photos will likely evolve into paintings. However, I was fascinated by the huge field of sunflowers that backed the patch. The hay wagon ride pulled by a tractor takes families through the sunflowers. I've been wanting to do more collage as everyone who sees them at our home are really drawn to them.

I realized after I started this piece that I should adopt a new process that I saw Derek Gores use in his Florida Studio. Derek is immensely successful these days, and I took the magazine collage class from him last year. Derek says he was trying a different approach where he covers the entire canvas before tackling the image. As you can imagine, applying background around these sunflowers was a task for a someone with more patience than I.

The drawing

 

I began the piece with a freehand drawing using a felt tip pen on the canvas.  

 

In the beginning





Several days later I started the process of applying some torn magazine with acrylic mat medium. I apply the gloss medium to the back of the paper, put it in place, and then paint medium over the top of the paper. Derek says you embrace the wrinkles. This is such a messy process for me that I do the work in the garage, a bit inconvenient -- take out the car and do setup and takedown each time. We have one car and many bicycless without an inch of space to spare.

 

 

A third of the way

 

Here is the painting partially done. At this point I had some black and color in the lower right. Later I decided to cover over them. Immediate feedback and the ability to easily make changes are perks of collage. Gerald Brommer says keep applying paper until the painting won't stay on the wall. Notice at this point the edges need more variation.



 

 

Almost done

 



Unfortunately. I forgot to photograph a few of the stages I would like to show you. At one point, I put some bright yellow checked papers in the upper right corner. That sent the high key meter off the wall. I needed to tone it back down. Now you see that I am almost done. I varied the edges so the images did not look like it was made with a cookie cutter. I was so taken with the tops of red lipsticks that I thought I could use them in the left upper corner. That looked unbalanced so I applied a few hints of petals in the lower right corner. I prop my painting up where I can walk by it frequently. My eyes were drawn to the corners of the art, not to the center of interest. They had to go.

 

 



Not quite done

 



In the process of eliminating the corner color, I came up with an interesting variation for the stem in the left corner - a double gold chain. Then I couldn't resist adding a few jewels. You see them in the center of the main flower, the stem of a leaf on the left and the stem of the large flower. Eek -- doesn't work in the center of the large flower. I covered over some and thought it was okay, but I realized I liked the previous version and that was lost forever. So back to the National Geographic and Vogue papers.

 

Some of the new variations worked. I added pieces of a black and white printout of my photos of sunflowers from Spina Farms. I like to weave parts of my inspiration into the art. I also spent time adding bits of paper here and there to give the edges more variety. Sometimes I purposely added words, which led to the title of this piece. Can you find the title in the painting?

 

At the top of the post you see the final art. Of course, I can always change my mind. Right now I am looking at a couple of my framed watercolors and I'm going to removed them from the frames and make a few final changes. So I never quite know if I am done.

 

 



The Art Roll Continues

 

"In the City by the Bay"

18" x18" magazine collage on canvas

Expect a few more refinements 

 

Seems that I get a lot of art energy from being around other artists. Between my trip to Murphy's for the Artist Getaway and my all-day plein air session with the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society (SCVWS), I can't  stop creating art. Friend Joan had been fascinated by my magazine collage work, done after taking a wonderful workshop from Derek Gores. After Joan left for home, I cropped an image of my granddaughter hanging off a parked cable car in San Francisco on a family visit to California in 2010 when Kelly was 14. Her hair was flying in the strong summer wind and I liked the angle of her head and shoulders.

 

I have been wanting to create this piece for a while. I spent several hours playing with the image and free-hand drawing it on tissue paper. Then I transferred the image to a canvas, using a broad Sharpie to go over the lines that would guide the collage work. You can see it does not require much detail. 

 

The drawing on canvas

 

 

I set myself up in the garage. This work is too messy for my upstairs studio that is just a side extension of my bedroom. Basically I tear lots of magazine pages into bits and apply pieces of them to the canvas with glossy acrylic liquid gel medium. 

 

The first day's work

 

 

I settled on a color scheme of fuschia, white and black, with some related colors for the hair. After a few hours, I had a good beginning. I knew that I wanted the hair to be ambiguous on the right, and darker to indicate some shadow there. Where does the hair end? That's part of the mystery.

 

 

The second day's work

 

I spent the afternoon in the garage tackling the face, always the biggest challenge for me. I know at this point that I will likely eliminate the watch face on her cheek and the lines of her neck are too defined and straight. The beauty of collage is it's easy to change my mind. Gerald Brommer, a famous artist who first taught me to use collage said, "Just keep adding paper until it's so heavy the painting will fall off the wall." I like the ambiguity that's developing. Is that the back of a woman forming some of her hair. Oh, I see a high heel and some flowers in her clothing. There is the San Francisco skyline.... (rescued from the newspaper a month ago as I thought about this collage).

 

 

The third day's work

 

Now that the canvas is covered, I can begin to refine the image. I eliminate the watch face, modify the neck, and put some white flowers on either side of her. Nope -- don't like those gardenias - too regular and fussy for suggesting a sophisticated city.

 

The fourth day's work

 

Gotta get rid of the white flowers. How about a cable car image? Try some black under the city. I don't like the long diagonal that the black creates. 

 

Final day's work

 

Will it help to break up the black a bit? Better, but I still don't like it. Time to revert back to white.

 

 

 

A repeated photo of the finished (?) piece

 

I kept the text, added some white with text, broke the long line at the top of her head, created some ambiguity in her hair on the lighted side, both on the outer and inner edges. Derek Gores would probably tell me that I need to vary the edges more, so this piece will likely change a bit yet as I contemplate how to make this piece more interesting.

 

Meanwhile, I was able to show one collage piece, at an SCVWS exhibit in the spring. The committee was pretty open-minded to include an all-collage piece as the society focuses on watermedia. My watermedia is the acrylic for the glue.  That event got me an invitation to show that piece and one other at the Rengstorf House in Mountain View during the month of August.









The Graduate

 

"The Graduate"

20" x 20" Torn Paper on Canvas

(c) Mary Paquet

 

 

I love using my grandchildren as my subjects. Jamie graduated from Danville High School in Vermont as valedictorian of her class this past June. We celebrated with a barbecue on a beautiful June Vermont day. Friend James Farinha took some photos and I just loved this one with the bright green glasses and her mortar board. James gave me blanket permission to use any photo of the teenagers for my art.

 

(c) James Farinha

 

I followed the same process I described in an earlier post. My darks would be purple and green would be the accent color. It's quite fascinating and sometimes very frustrating to do. I am constantly having a dialogue with the painting and my magazine papers. I wove into the painting bits and pieces of Jamie's life. You will find the following photos if you look closely:

• Jamie riding her horse Sky in January snows. She found this horse advertised on the hardware store bulletin board and trained the two-and-half year-old when she herself was barely a teen. Sky is ridden in horse shows by both sisters and achieved Grand Champion this year.
• Jamie playing soccer for her high school; she now is on the Smith College team
• Jamie teaching soccer to young boys in Senegal, Africa, while working with a volunteer group in 2011 (girls don't play soccer in Senegal)
• Jamie teaching English to small children in French-speaking Senegal (she choose this country so she could practice her French)
• A piece of Jamie's award-winning art - she paints in multiple mediums, sculpts, and does collage

There is a hint of her love of bicycles with the woman in a yellow bicycle jersey. I had to give up on a lovely chocolate bicycle on her shirt because it lacked color harmony. I also wove in the words "Love," "Danville High," "Smith," and "Senegal."

I think it's time to go back to traditional painting as I am beginning to feel rusty.I will do more collage in the future and have ordered a yearly subscription to a couple fashion magazines to use as paint.

An addendum:
I decided I needed to modify some of the straight edges for interest, so you will see changes here -- the shoulder line is broken and I added the word Ole because I wanted to enter the piece in the Cafe Ole show. That helped fit into the theme.

"Ole'"

 
 
 
 

Torn Paper

"Gymkhana"

Torn magazines on 40" x 30" Canvas

 

In my previous post I mentioned working on a new collage piece, an art medium done with torn magazine pages and glossy acrylic medium on gallery wrapped canvas that I learned in a Derek Gores workshop. While in Vermont in June, I watched granddaughter Kelly, 16, ride a Gymkhana on her horse Spirit. I loved the action shot I took, so I cropped the picture which showed the entire horse and the arena.

 

 

Day 1: Draw the subject on the canvas with a black Sharpie

 

This looks like a simple stylized drawing, but I spent a lot of time making sure I got proportions correct and the action captured. I drew on several pieces of tracing paper taped together to make it the size of the canvas. I then transferred my drawing using graphite paper, doing small sections at a time and immediately going over the faint lines with my Sharpie. This was about a 2 hour job. I made some more adjustments after this photo.

 

Day 2: In the beginning....

 

I worked with Bob's daughter Jamie who wanted to learn the process. By the end of the day I thought is this mess ever going to come together. If you look closely, some things will later get covered over. Note the use of shoes to make the helmet and some of the black background. The horses nostrils include some horse shoes. Here I was thinking push and pull, with lights and darks. I had also selected a color palette. I decided on black and white with red. I worked about 4.5 hours.



 

Day3: I am encourage that this might work

 

I spent lots of time in the garage working away. My studio is a small L on my master bedroom and I have to be the messiest collage artist around, so I set up for collage in the garage. I also wear one outfit dedicated to collage work as I am wearing a liberal amount of medium by the time I am done for the day. Notice that the sweet row of olives has disappeared. Sometimes I have to kill something I like. I began to think this art was going to turn into something and shared it with Kelly's parents. Kelly was blown away with the work and her mom, an architect, designer, and accomplished carpenter decided she will try her hand at this type of art. Another 4 hours of work.

 

Day 4: The closer to the finish the slower I go



Now I am thinking how to vary the edges, refinements to the facial planes, the horse's eyes, the tack, and embellishments that tell a story. Kelly lives in a tiny town in rural Northeaster Vermont. My Vermont Life magazines helped with autumn leaves and words. Now I am thinking that the dark space is turning into a mountain. It's too abruptly steep for the weathered Green Mountains, but the state has few flat spots. Five more hours;  I even sent Bob off to dance without me.

Day 5 is the finish, or is it? I need to walk by it many times and also check in with my critique group. Viewing the finished piece at the top, you can see that I modified the mountain (perhaps it suggests Vermont's signature mountain, "Camel's Hump").  I added some additional Vermont memorabilia, the horse's name "Spirit" in the upper left, and two photos of Kelly, one with Spirit when she led the hometown parade on her tricked out horse, and one with her sister Jamie's horse Sky that Kelly rode to Grand Champion in her class at the Vermont Classic Horse Show.  They are small. You will have to search the right side in the darks to find them.

I had lots of fun telling a story. I added a bit of dazzle with gold and jewels -- Kelly is a stylish Junior in high school. The red sun glasses grabbed me after seeing Kelly's playful picture on Facebook wearing oversized joke glasses. Cabot makes our favorite aged cheddar cheese. The word Trail (part of the Long Trail micro brewed beer name) references the trail events she rides on Spirit. Another 4 hours.

I've been a bit obsessive over my art this week, neglecting all but the essentials. Bob and I did attend 4 Halloween parties and dances, though. We took first place with our Highlands Couple costumes at two events and second place at another. That is Bob's real kilt in his Anderson Clan plaid. I was the one that had to think up a costume!

The final pass on my second collage

 



"Edgy Wine"

Final Collaged Stilllife completed in Derek Gores Workshop

 



 

Ha! I thought I was done. Derek got us together and talked about making our edges more interesting, breaking the edges, and using lots of variation. Notice the broken line of the table formed by a row of women, the interesting yellow shapes, the addition of lots of people. Derek says the variations are little surprises for our viewer. Completing this piece, including finishing the sides with collaged greens, took until after 1! You can view yesterday's version. Definitely this one is much more fun. I like the yellow person in the wine glass. This type of collage can really engage the viewer.

 

We had a lovely show/critique to finish up the workshop. Several people from our society dropped in to see the art and bemoan the fact they did not take the workshop. Our volunteeer takedown crew got to enjoy the final showing before breaking down the room .  Here is Derek talking about my work.

 

 

Derek Gores critiquing my work

The second collage painting -- a still life in Derek Gores Workshop

 

"Edgy Wine"

18" x 18"

Collage on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

 

 

Derek Gores demos his approach to painting shoes.

 

Today many people continued to work on their portraits. I had chosen to do mine in black, grey, and white, an easier task than using color. Those of us who had finished got to start our still life. I selected a wine bottle and glass and a color palette that (hopefully) will look good with my new color scheme, earth tones and greyed aqua (looks like sage to me). I have a spot that I would like to hang it in the new kitchen.

 

Adding color to the mix always adds a bit of challenge, especially when I was attempting to find edges within the magazine pages. Finding an edge with two correct colors and values is not easy. I scoured my fashion magazines and Sunset magazine. I now have two questions: Am I done (should I add shadows of the bottle and glass)? and will the blues and greens I chose match my decor. Of course, all artists shun people who buy art based on color palette, but it does matter to me.

 

What a ride -- I will never look at a magazine the same way again. One more day of workshop to go. We are in the groove. Come in, organize our palette of papers and dive in. Derek goes around and helps us along. His goal is that we all succeed. On this one, Derek made some suggestions about variation (use different textures, colors and  for the highlights and edges on the bottle and wine glass). About 12 to 12:30 we take a lunch break. I always go to the gardens of the Rosicrucian Museum. I invite people to join me. Often the instructor will come with us and we have a nice casual lunch together. An hour later we are back at it at until 4.

 

Today Derek took some time to demo his favorite still life, a woman's high heel shoe, and how to draw and apply collage to an eye, a very complex structure. Tomorrow will be a bit shorter day as our take down crew arrives early. Four people will not be with us due to prior commitments, The Georgia artists are headed home tomorrow. Those of us who remain will have critique before we leave. We have had some interim critiques, and this is the grand finale.





My First All Paper Painting

 

"City Girl"

36" x 36" Collage on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

 

A messy process - stand by with a shop vac

 

Instructor Derek Gores works with a fellow artist

 The group is hard at work on some amazing art

 

 

Derek Gores is a wonderful young artist from Melbourne, FL. A very accomplished graphic designer, he has done work for many well-known companies and people. He is teaching us his wonderful all-paper collage process, which he does on gallery-wrapped canvas. All you need is canvas, lots of glossy magazines (fashion are especially nice), glossy mat medium, a flat brush or your hands, gloss varnish, and a good image with strong values.
 

This is a very demanding process and Derek warned us we would be tired. We drew our image on the canvas with a Sharpie, set up our color paper palette, and began from large to small working all over the canvas. The first sheets that went down were full sheets. We tear the paper and do not use scissors. Derek prefers to find his edges using paper rather than having the torn edge of the paper at the edge. For example, the lip is black, but it's made up of small pieces of paper that extend above or below the lip and has both the black of the the lip and the off-white of the skin next to it. The edge is on the torn paper. That is what makes this type of art so demanding. You are looking at the magazines and saying where can I use this or searching for the perfect piece.

The picture is made up of surprising elements. Text and pictures are all integrated into the image. Can you see people and a leg in this art? Derek says he depends upon randomness to create the picture. Pages with text and patterns are especially helpful for values and transitions.

By the end of Monday, we all had half-complete work and it was difficult to see how we were going to "get there." Derek says it's a leap of faith and he has self-doubts, too. When I arrived home, my brain was so tired, I was almost comatose! Today, though, the process was  beginning to gel for me, and Derek is great about coming around and giving individual attention. He tore some pieces and suggested where to use them a couple different times and got me over the hump when it came to shadows and the eyes. By the end of today, I had finished my piece and most folks were close to done. I have to say, we could have a fabulous show.

I chose to use black and white as my color palette because it is the easiest. I didn't want to have color in the mix to confuse me during the learning process. I will tackle color tomorrow when we do an 18" x 18" stillife.

Bob and I hosted Derek for dinner this evening, in spite of our remodel mess. He thoroughly enjoyed seeing our neighborhood and home. We enjoyed getting to know Derek.