A few days ago… wait, a few weeks ago… no, a few months ago… Wow! Is it already mid-August?!? Oh, my! How time flies… As I was saying, a few months ago, I started working through a book my husband gave me for Christmas. It is Collage Lab by Bee Shay and it explains how to create, you guessed it, collage art.

As you know, I love trying different types of art, so putting several together into one piece is really exciting. In the interest of learning the basics before jumping around in the book, I started with unit 1 lab 1. This lab focused on creating a basic gesso background. I made a mess and had a blast!

The lab involved creating various textures by applying gesso (mixed with paint for color to see it better) using paint brushes, sponges, and whatever else I could find. The 2 panels to the left were created by brushing gesso on 2 pieces of mixed media paper and smashing them together. I love the result! They remind me of angel wings.

I also used one of my favorite Shakespeare quotes on one of the panels (see top photo). The words (pun intended) were scraped in using the end of a paint brush. Who knew just playing with gesso on paper could be so fun?

This summer has been a little crazy and I haven’t taken much time for creative stuff. Man, I can tell, too. I feel much better when I take time to just make pretty things. So keep an eye out for more lessons from the Collage Lab.