Print/Collages: from idea to reality

Why Collage?

I’ve always enjoyed making collages, not being a particularly skilled drawer, I prefer to drew with materials. Collaging is akin to Printmaking, both deal with similar elements such as the layering of colours or shapes, transparency and opacity, positive and negative spaces. So I feel equally at home making a print as I do making a collage or combining the too!

How they’re made

I select beautiful papers for my collages, some that I’ve printed myself and others that I’ve collected over the years. I also use old book cloth from books that would have been pulped, to add to the antique quality of some pieces. I begin by selecting the colours that I’m going to use in a particular piece. I like to have a good tonal range in my collages and so I start by laying out my selected papers from light to dark to check that I have a good range. I then start, laying down a piece of paper and responding to that piece by placing another piece down. And so it continues until I feel the piece of work is complete. Until I have communicated what I want to convey to the viewer.