Category Archives: candy wrapper collage

Something about birds

What is it about birds? I love watching birds…. birds at the feeder, birds flying by, especially flocks of birds. On occasion, I try to paint the birds I see in a realistic way, but more often I create colourful birds of the imagination, birds from faraway tropics, birds with hairdos, eye rings…improbable birds. As far back I can remember, I have painted, drawn, sculpted, collaged and colored these fanciful birds.

Our spring has been unfolding slowly, with many false starts and sunny days that tease. Outside these past two weeks, we have had many gray and overcast days. Inside, I have been immersed in a world of colourful and wild birds in tangled gardens. It is as if another spring is blooming inside me! When I make a rice paper birds and arrange them between sheets of plexiglass or when I paint birds, It feels as if these birds reside inside in me, too many to count, and as they are created, they fly free in paint and ink, in collage papers. Why I love to paint fanciful birds, I do not know. They are a happy mystery to me. I feel as though I could create birds forever! Look below for my recent spring pieces followed by  an assortment of other birds in flight from years gone by.

" Spring Bursting Forth", watercolour and inks, 18" x 24"

” Spring Bursting Forth”, watercolour and inks, 18″ x 24″

20160403_144534 20160403_144653 - Version 2 20160403_144710 - Version 2 20160403_144742 20160403_14492020160325_204849 20160325_204859 20160325_204906 20160325_204918 20160326_06435520160326_064453DSC_0153 - Version 14 DSC_0198 - Version 2 DSC_0227 - Version 11 IMG_0009 IMG_0069 - Version 5 IMG_1248 IMG_1601 IMG_2168 - Version 3 IMG_2316 - Version 10 IMG_2389 - Version 12

Image 64 Image 88

"Tree Blooming Birds", Rice paper Plexiglass Collage, 32" x 40"

“Tree Blooming Birds”, Rice paper Plexiglass Collage, 32″ x 40″

 

Raising the Roof

IMG_2164My summer plan was to stop creating collages for a while, and focus a little more on watercolour painting. Then, this beautiful blue lining from an envelope Jessie received  with a grad card captured my heart. The paper is silky, the geometric patterns simple, the different blues thrill me. The envelope lining is almost perfect – just a slight tear. It beckons me from my work table every time I pass. It wants to be a house. So, I put the watercolours aside and pull out my scissors.

envelope lining - to die for

envelope lining – to die for

envelope lining becomes a house

envelope lining becomes a house

trying different background papers

trying different background papers

IMG_2145

 

I try the house with the roof on and it doesn’t look right. So I raise the roof a bit…. suddenly in the new space created I can see that a tree wants to grow – a golden tree. I find the perfect gold foil – the wrapper from an expensive chocolate bar.

a tree begins to grow from beautiful and fragile gold foil

a tree begins to grow from beautiful and fragile gold foil

tree is raising the roof

tree is raising the roof

gluing the tree - toothpick and wet glue

gluing the tree – toothpick and wet glue. Slow work…patience, Sue

IMG_2154

green leaves from cigarette papers, turquoise leaves from old wrapping paper

green leaves from cigarette papers, turquoise leaves from old wrapping paper

almost done

almost done

birds fly from the tree

birds fly from the tree

flight

flight

"Raising the Roof" - Paper collage using candy wrappers, envelope lining, cigarette foils and other papers

“Raising the Roof” – Paper collage using candy wrappers, envelope lining, cigarette foils and other papers. 18″ x 24″

 

A few days later, rectangles of the original envelope lining plus a new piece of purple paper from the Paper Umbrella inspire me – this one is about RAIN, I think, and responds to the deluge of rain we got in early July that caused flooding in much of Southeastern Saskatchewan.IMG_2195

 

in the window…this paper is marbled gold in the back and I like how the light picks that up.

in the window…this paper is marbled gold in the back and I like how the light picks that up.

Translucence

translucent

  • (Of a substance) allowing light, but not detailed shapes, to pass through; semi-transparent:her beautiful translucent skin

 

I have been learning about translucence with the grade 4’s.  We are working with tissue paper and rice paper, both of which are translucent. By some lucky miracle, the grade 4’s will also be learning about translucence in science. They are getting a head start.

Ty's translucent butterfly (it started out as a target and was transformed as he worked on it)

Ty’s translucent butterfly (it started out as a target and was transformed as he worked on it)

Pick any search engine and ask for images of translucent items and you will be amazed. We thought of every day ordinary things that were translucent: sunglasses, tinted glass, bubbles, water and some ice, sheer scarves.

I love water. Perhaps this is why I have always loved things that were translucent. When I was a small girl, I loved swimming underwater in a lake with my eyes open. I liked looking at the sand and shells beneath me, and through the water at the sky and the white and green of the birch trees that dotted the shore line above me.

We have created many beautiful things with tissue paper in the grade 4 class. This week, I introduced rice paper to the students. Our final project will be created with rice paper and plexi glass. Each student closed their eyes and chose a small piece of rice paper or some other translucent paper from a basket. No two pieces were the same. Here is what some students wrote about their paper:IMG_1728 IMG_1729Other students described the paper as bumpy, hairy, thicker than tissue paper, hard to tear, see through, with a pattern, as soft, as kind of smooth, furry. The paper came in every colour! Some had paper with patterns in it, or shapes with swirls that start on the inside and works its way around or a flower pattern. Some of the scraps of paper reminded the students of something else: “my paper has the same shape as Saskatchewan”, “my paper reminds me of the colour of a bull moose”, “the green of my paper reminds me of when I go quadding in a muddy place where there is green”, “my paper reminds me of my mom’s paintings”, “it reminds me of dryer sheets”,”this paper smells like Sue’s house”, “it makes me think of a dragonfly”. Because they did not choose their paper, some students did not like their paper while others did.

Students were then asked to glue their paper on a small piece of transparent film. They could tear it or cut it or arrange it any way they liked, eventually adding other scraps of paper to their design.

playing with rice paper - some of the designs in my living room window

playing with rice paper – some of the designs in my living room window

more abstract designs - you can see Emma's dragonfly at the bottom

more abstract designs – you can see Emma’s dragonfly at the bottom

here I have layered the transparent film

here I have layered the transparent film

more layers

more layers

the student's designs make shadows on the wall in the afternoon light

the student’s designs make shadows on the wall in the afternoon light

all the students designs layered together with some translucent parts and some that are not

all the students designs layered together with some translucent parts and some that are not