Week 4 at Lilla Rogers School

Can't believe it's already the end of week 4 at Lilla's school; where did the time go? One more week then we will be done (until October that is, because I signed up for Part B of the course, too.) Again, I am completely wowed by my classmates this week, especially by all the talented painters in the class. For week 4, Lilla covered this market:
 
I didn't really know what to expect for this week, especially when our Monday exercise didn't even involve any kind of drawing. Lilla just simply wanted us to go on a scavenger hunt in our homes. We were told to gather stuff according to the colors for our astrology signs (so that's red & orange for me) plus unlimited amount of neutral colors, and these are the stuff we can use to create our wall art piece later. I don't really collect small stuff but surprisingly still managed to find bunch of little items (plus the thought that I really need to have a garage sale).

On Wednesday we received our assignment, and it was to create an abstract collage wall art piece for shops like Anthropologie or Urban Outfitters. We can do whatever we want, but it needs to have all these elements: words, floral motifs, some kind of traditional media and geometric/organic motifs. We are told to create something that we like and not worry about the clients. We could work digitally but we were really encouraged to explore paint and work with our hands. So that's what I determined to do for this week, not to use my computer at all. I know I am not as comfortable with paint as many artists in my class, and that's exactly why I wanted to push myself.

So I went to our local Urban Outfitters for some inspirations (plus a little shopping), and this is what inspired my piece later:



And here is what I did. First, I just played with the layout using some wooden discs/squares and a diecut chipboard I found in my house, plus some wood veneers cut into shapes. (Also, some watercolor bits I did from week 2 also got cut up and used in the collage.) The base is a 10"x10" wooden board.



Then slowly I colored some of the pieces and added patterns or drawings. I admit I didn't totally stick to the colors assigned to me. I love colors too much and couldn't help but adding some extra ones.





Spraying a couple coats of clear varnish to all the pieces before final assembly.



And here is the final piece. I made a simple distressed strip frame for it.



 I finished my piece on Saturday morning and submitted to our group. With no more deadline pressure, I decided to make another piece and just had fun with it (plus my desk was already a giant mess so why not add to it?) I put down layers and layers of paint, distressed them, glued a piece of old pattern paper and a piece of red ric rac I found in my house, and put on some more paint. I had a blast!
 

Then I decide to paint a kitty on my board. It was based on a vintage kitty string holder like this one. Painting vintage kitchen item was fun; I might try to paint a few more later.



So that's it, week 4. It was definitely an adventure for me with all the painting and no computer at all.  At the end, I am really glad that I made something tangible which I can hold in my hands.