Garden Party

Garden Party
painted paper collage on matboard
​12" x 16"

It's funny because this piece was just supposed to be a way to use up leftover scraps after the last piece. I started by adding a few shapes here and there. Nothing much was happening though until I added the large and central green leaf shape. That was interesting (kind of bold because of the darker value and size of the shape) but then I added the pink curve beneath the leaves and well, I was off and running! It looked like a person with a hat and I couldn't help but laugh at that.

Over the course of a couple days I kept adding random, small things. Nothing big though to pull the piece together. There wasn't a cohesive storyline yet (I am not sure there is now) but in my mind I had sort of a "prehistoric/garden/floral" theme pictured. I added shapes that I thought might fit that idea and things started to come together.

As I began to wind up the piece, I knew that the large green leaf shape felt empty. (There was nothing inside of it yet.) It seemed like a repetition of the flower motif would work but my laziness prevented me from digging in to that decision. I tried other things but nothing really clicked. Finally, I just bit the bullet and tried out one flower shape. I knew it would work and so I cut more flowers, arranged them and added the centers. It really pulled everything together and gave an "overallness" to the piece that I wanted.

It seems that I am always learning (and re-learning) things while I work. This time it was the lesson that the easiest solution is not always the best. The best solution in this case required drawing and cutting and time which wasn't easy for me. I am glad though that I just sucked things up and did those flowers. The piece makes me laugh a bit and makes me happy and really, that is all I want these days.

In other news, I am not sure if I ever mentioned that at one point I had some items on Redbubble. People could select from some images and purchase cards or prints. I am thinking about doing this again and have actually added some new images. I know I need to improve my photography though and am starting to work on that. Stay tuned though for some progress reports!

OK, hope everyone reading has had a creative week. Feel free to email me with comments. Thanks for having a read!
Libby