Collage Couture and negative space

Good morning, just thought I would post a few things that I have finished in the last couple of weeks that hadn't gotten posted yet. The above layout was done for the Lotuspaperie challenge to use negative space. the background is the cover from an old Neiman Marcus catalog and the journaling reads "Feet, what do I need you for when I have WINGS TO FLY - Frida Kahlo" I have always loved her wild autobiographic style and always get color inspiration just from looking through some of the books I have of her paintings.

A closeup of the elements in my collage Tide Line

I did this collage for my Thursday painting class - I gessoed a piece of cardboard, added brown paper napkins from Panera's and then began piling on scraps of papers and all kinds of elements including actual shells, corals, and a sand dollar from my travel stash. then I added a wooden heart pin that I had made with vintage buttons. My teacher critiqued it in class and pointed out all the graphic elements - triangular design, lots of circles echoing each other, etc. It's funny how instinctual those elements must be because this piece almost made itself and I had a wonderful and peaceful time following its path.

This final canvas was done over a 5 week period in the SIS Collage Couture class. It is virtually a sampler of the techniques presented in the class - gesso, acrylic paint, stenciling, image transfer via gel medium and via packing tape, imbedding of elements, collage elements, oil pastels, inking. I think it looks very masculine - I sort of started with the bird idea of nesting but as the collage developed, I found myself moving more toward the textual feather motif. Most of the vivid color elements were added in the last 2 weeks as I felt the piece was somewhat bland and needed sparks.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Today I am continuing to work on a large mixed media painting of orchids and tomorrow I hope to finish sewing a new top for vacation and then attend painting class in the afternoon. Here in southeast Florida, we are truly in the wet season and it deluges us every afternoon. We were super dry this past winter and spring so we really need the rain to build up our reserves. One funky thing about all this moisture and humidity is that even with the house being air conditioned, some of my layouts are warping (I admit I am terrrible about filing them so they end up piled up for a while.) I need to file them in albums pretty soon. LOL!
TTFN