Birdwalking....with Collage

What is "birdwalking?"  My understanding of the word is that it means to stray off topic.  As you can imagine, creative people are often drawn to all types of activities and forms of expression.  This is not great for marketing, I suppose, but as one of my favorite former art teachers would say, "So What?"

I did a couple of collage pieces back when I was recovering from a few months of morning sickness, and knew I had found a fun way to create art that appealed to my sometimes child-inspired view of life.  After having another baby, there's been precious little time to do much of anything artistic, and for a while I was struggling with the frustration of never being able to really focus on my paintings for more than a few minutes at a time.

With these pieces, I could pick them up and put them down as time allowed, and even do a little work with a baby in the wrap and a preschooler yapping in my ear.  The following three were inspired by the children's song "May There Always be Sunshine," which I found myself humming a lot as I worked and rocked the baby:
  
"Expecting" 9 x 12 Mixed Media on Paper
Click here to view Etsy listing 

"Here Comes Mama" 9 x 12 Mixed Media on Paper
Click here to view Etsy Listing
"Flight Lesson" 9 x 12 Mixed Media on Paper
Click here to view Etsy listing
These three pieces were created with watercolor paper (toned with watercolor for the background), and cutouts of shapes (also from watercolor paper), which  colored with oil pastel and glued to the paper with matte medium.  After letting the pieces dry pressed flat between books, I worked in chalk pastel to blend and finish each picture.











Another piece completed with this set was a leftover from my hot air balloon experiment last spring:
"Sunset Ride" 9 x 12 Mixed Media on Paper
Click here to view Etsy listing
Since these collage pieces don't really fit with my fine art portfolio, I'm going to list them through my Etsy Store, which has become my online outlet for fun, experimental works.  This is the kind of art I enjoy making when I just feel the need to work with color and assemble something with my hands-- it also satisfies the desire I have to make art for children; I used to dream of illustrating children's books, but got more caught up in writing instead.

Speaking of writing, I've got some free art lessons (geared toward high school, but they would work for middle school and adults as well) published on  Bright Hub.  If you're interested in viewing those, just click any of the links below:

Create a Land or Seascape Lesson
Choose a Style (Realist, Impressionist, Abstract)
Quick Draw: Identifying Shapes
Art Analysis: What's on your Mind?

Visit my fine art website to see what I'm painting when I'm not playing around with collage.


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