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Elizabeth
St. Hilaire Nelson
Collage with Hand-Painted Paper
Thank You
I must extend heartfelt thanks to my
biggest fan and supporter, my husband
Doug. He spent hours filming and editing
my DVD only to be followed by hours of
taking most of the photographs for this book.
He professionally photographs all of my
artwork, cuts wood for me, watches the kids
when I attend art openings, solves storage
problems in my studio, and wakes up most
mornings to my side of the bed empty, as Ive
already headed out to my studio and started
my day making Paper Paintings.
I love you, Elizabeth
THE UNDER-PAINTING
What is a
Paper Painting?
A figurative, painterly collage is created by adhering
hand-painted, hand-made, and found papers over an
acrylic under painting on wood panel.
The overall impressionistic feeling of the work is
achieved by treating every bit of torn (not cut) paper
like an brush stroke, keeping details loose, and using
a variety of texture and shades of paper in every
color field.
Creating your own papers for collage offers a custom
paper palette with every shade of every color that
appeals to you, offering variety and inspiration.
Utilizing the same techniques that apply to painting
with acrylic or oil, the success of the work depends
on a firm understanding of shadinglight, dark, and
medium values coupled with brush strokes that
follow the form.
Often times, the viewer will be totally surprised that
this artwork is not a painting, but rather a mixed
media collage. Even up close, people will still ask,
You mean its not a painting?
Fluid Acrylic paints are lightfast and permanent, an excellent choice for painting
your own collage papers. You can water them down extensively and they keep
the same level of vibrancy, making them excellent for dripping and splattering.
What happened next was sad, but true. Most art store
papers fade! These papers are possibly colored with dye and
not pure pigment (the color that is the base of all fine art
paints and pastels). Dye fades over time, depending on its
exposure to sunlight. It will break your heart to see a collage
fading right in front of you, little by little, as the years go by.
At first you might not even notice it, until you look back at
a photo of the work on a note card or on your website, and
all of a sudden you realize that your original just does not
look as vibrant as it used to.
Preferred Products
As I have mentioned, I prefer to use Golden
Fluid Acrylic colors to paint my collage papers.
These paints are lightfast, durable, and flexible.
They are wonderfully versatile, professional
quality acrylic colors with the consistency of
heavy cream.
Highly pigmented, their excellent tinting
strength produces strong color even when
mixed with acrylic medium or when thinned
with water for staining effects on book pages,
and memorabilia where you want to tint but not
obscure the type or pattern.
Golden Polymer Varnish with UVLS (Ultra
Violet Light Stabilizers) is a waterborne acrylic
polymer varnish that dries to a protective,
flexible, dust-resistant surface. I use this
product as my final sealant over collage.
NOTE: Polymer Varnishes must be thinned
before use. They have been formulated thicker
than traditional varnishes, to maintain an even
suspension of matting agents. This ensures more
consistency in surface reflectance.
Varnishes are available in a highly reflective
Gloss, and an exceptionally flat Matte. The
matte varnish will lighten dark value colors.
I prefer Golden
UVLS varnish in
a satin sheen, you
may like gloss or
matte, its a personal
preference. This is
the final protection
coating of the
collage which allows
it to be framed
without glass.
Techniques for
Painting Papers
Monoprinting
Dry Brushing
Above is a nice example of the dry brush
technique. First, I took this sheet of art
paper and dry brushed dark green onto it
with a dry brush dipped very lightly in fluid
acrylics, I zipped the brush lightly across the
sheet without much pressure. The nature of
this paper is very absorbent, so the ink sinks
right in and does not spread much.
Next, after letting the paper dry in the sun
for about 10 minutes, I took the paper
back into the studio and mixed up some
lime green (an analogous color on the color
wheel) with much water so that it was
very translucent. I quickly and completely
brushed this color over the top of the dark
green dry brushing, to cover all of this heavy
art paper.
The effect is a nice green toned paper with
much texture that would be very good for
grass or tree leaves.
Spattering
Take this outside, I learned the hard way
what a mess it is if you dont! You may use
a toothbrush and run your thumb across
it for a more fine spatter, or shake a large
brush full of diluted fluid acrylics for a bold
spatter. If you work wet in wet (spray down
your paper first with a water mist bottle)
spatter droplets of diluted paint onto wet
paper, they will bleed and spread nicely. If
you work dry, you will get a totally different
effect, spots with defined edges.
Judith Segall
Judith Segall
Judith Segall
Work Space
My studio was built on an existing slab in our
backyard where a long-gone shed once stood. The
slab sat there looking lonely and without purpose
for many years.
My studio is just outside the back door from my
kitchen and down a cobblestone path. I can run
out there and put a coat of varnish on a collage
between loads of laundry, designing a magazine
layout, and making dinner. I would never be able
to be as productive without my studio space; I can
make a mess and leave it, closing the door behind
me. Its the most efficient use of time and space.
Oftentimes I am out there very late at night and
very early in the morning, working on my art with
my dogs at my feet and my family fast asleep in
the house. I can play my music and turn on all the
lights without waking anyonethis quiet time is
my inspiration.
I organize my painted papers in clear drawers according to color, I have them on top of
a rolling cart in my studio so that when I work at the easel, they are easily accessible.
Making a Mess
If you can afford some space to call your own, it
makes all the difference in the world. I am very
fortunate to be able to create a mess of torn paper
and be able to close the door and walk away when
I am done for the day.
Step One:
Surface and Sketch
When framing my work in traditional molding,
I work on 1/4-inch sanded hardwood panels for
available at The Home Depot near me in pre-cut
pieces (24x24 or 24x48). These pre-cut pieces can
then be cut down to smaller sizes by HD (no smaller
than 1ft.) or by you with elbow grease and a utility
knife with a new blade.
This is THINwood, not standard plywood. As an
alternative to having to cut wood, a product I really
like is American Easel Wood Painting Panels. These
pre sanded panels are available at DickBlick.com.
These gallery wrapped wood panels can be hung
without frame molding, or they sit very nicely in a
floater frame.
The reason I work on wood versus canvas is simple,
you can push the glue into and against the wood
without experiencing give. Stretched canvas does
not offer enough resistance for some of the thicker,
more highly textured papers which require more
pressure and more glue. In addition, wood resists
warping, especially the boxed panels. Since I do not
frame under glass, warping can be an issue with any
matt board or foam core type of substrate.
Step Two
The Under Painting
Step Three
The Collage Application
Sandra Baker-Hinton
Directional Ripping
and Shading
Directional ripping is basically following the
form of an object with pieces of collage paper
that have been torn into shapes that also
mirror that form. Practice this technique by
creating round objects like an apple, focus on
shading and creating a feeling of roundness.
You can see the apple at the left has a feeling
of roundness for two reasons: 1) Shading 2)
The collage papers are torn in a semi-circular
shape, and they wrap around the form of the
apple. Larger, rounded pieces are layered in
the center area of the apple which is closest
to the viewer. Smaller, thinner crescent
shaped pieces are around the edges and in
the areas that are further from the viewer.
The apple exercise is the first thing I teach
in my workshops. Once you get a feeling
for following the form of the apple with
directional ripping and shading you will
realize that this form of collage is much like
painting.
Whites
Here you can see that directional ripping plays
a major part in defining the form of the cows
face, which does not offer much shading in the
pure white areas. The semi circular pieces follow
up and around the eyes and brow bone area,
the straight pieces come down the center of the
nose, the short spiky pieces form the tuft at the
top of the head, and rounded pieces help to
make the cheek and jowls feel full.
White values are tough to shade, I like to use
text and variety of paper color for this purpose.
Not all whites are the same, different book
pages are different shades of white, old books
offer a nice yellow white, whereas new books
offer brighter white. White can also be shaded
with text. Small body copy that is close together
appears darker than large headlines where the
text is more spread apart. Utilize both paper
color and text density to help you shade your
white on white areas. Utilize your directional
ripping to help define the form in your white on
white areas that do not offer a lot of shading.
Left: Sheepish
20x24 / collage on panel
Blue (detail) was created with some collage papers that a friend had made in a class, and never used. I bought her lunch and
she handed over this wonderful stained paper with the word blue all over it.
Related Materials
It can be a lot of fun to try to find printed material
related to your subject, and use it in your collages. I
have found a book of nursery rhymes to be a wonderful
resource for all of my barnyard animals.
Purchasing books especially for the occasion can
be worth while as well. For my peacock series I did
purchase a book of stories about birds, it offered me
pages of text with words like nest and birds and even
peacockand feathers.
Compositional
Considerations
Collage is a busy medium, there are lots of
competing elements, between the viewer trying
to read the related materials, to the multiple
textures and colors and variety of sizes of torn
pieces. Because of this, the most successful
compositions are simple. Consider one large
point of focus with a simple background.
Choose a large vase of flowers, the head of a
cow, one bird on a branch... Make your point of
focus the thing with the most detail and let the
rest be simple.
When creating an area of color, be sure to use a
variety of different shades of that color as well as
different papers. Do not create an area of brown
entirely of one brown paper, this is nowhere
near as exciting as a variety of textures and
shades of brown as in the Contented Cattle II
on the left.
Elizabeth St
. Hilaire Nelso
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Elizabeth St
. Hilaire Nelso
Collage with
Hand-Painted
Paper
Workshops
I teach collage workshops all over the country
and would love to have the opportunity to meet
fellow collage artists! I offer a variety of time lines
including half-day through three-day sessions.
Visit my blog for a listing of upcoming workshops:
Elizabethsthilairenelson.Blogspot.com
Students in Amelia Island, FL enjoy
painting their own collage papers and
pose for a photo at the end of a threeday collage workshop.
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intin
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- OCTOBER
Pap
COLLAGE PROCES
OVERVIEW
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EW
AN OVERVI
ESS
AT I V E P R O C
TO THE CRE
Nelson
Paper Paintings
collage
works in
Solo Exhibition in
k
Key West, New Wor
on White to
January brings Walk
y on White
the Stone Soup Galler
I am one of their
Street in Key West.
round, but this is
stable artists year
solo exhibition.
the month of my
g on
I am feverishly workin
of new work
producing 17 pieces
have a couple of
for the show. I do
on if I do not
pieces I can fall back
first week of
make the 17 by the
is to send the
January, but my goal
themed work
gallery all Key West
I can do it.
if
work,
and all new
dodging roosters
If you find yourself
your way to the
in Key West, make
my collages.
gallery to check out
Oh! roosters.....
click>gallery of new
work
hop
works
PS:
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y
lasNelsonPhotograph
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Paper Paintin
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Collage with
Hand-Painted
Paper
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321-277-4553
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ISBN 978-1-304-80272-9
90000
Elizabeth
St. Hilaire Nelson
elizabeth@PaperPaintings.com | PaperPaintings.com
9 781304 802729