Gerald Brommer Workshop ~ Week Two ~ Collage

11" x 11" watercolor collage on 300 lb. paper.
I enjoyed working on this piece and started out just getting paper down and that included some old postage stamps I'd torn from envelopes. I cut them in two and if you click on the image you might see Cary Grant in the middle left area of the dark black section under the gold (candy wrapper I think). Some of the pieces were from the inside of privacy envelopes. It was fun to experiment. I washed over some gold paint (Liquitex's acrylic Basics value series gold). It works great for some light washes mixed with water or a little medium. At the bottom of the painting I added some "Brommer Sanskrit writing" for interest. Most of the painting was made from watercolor painted pieces of oriental papers and then torn into the desired shapes.

Nancy and Jerry

My copy of one of his favorite books has arrived and I'm in the process of reading it now. You may be lucky and find a copy in a used book store. Many are very expensive online as they are out of print. The book is Emotional Content: How to Create Paintings That Communicate, @ 2003, publisher International Artist. Gerald focuses on identifying, developing and conveying your own message and personal response to a scene or image. It helps the artist make the leap from mastering technique to mastering the message.

P.S.
Friends are saying I couldn't find Cary Grant so I've cropped the high resolution image and here he is. Turn your head sideways and he's between the gold and the purple in the center section. Reminds me of playing "Where's Waldo". "Can you see me now" says Archibald Alec Leach.

Gerald Brommer Workshop ~ Floral Collage ~ Art Journal Pages

Floral Collage
11" x 15"
Gerald Brommer gave instructions that he didn't want to see any pistils or stamens in our floral collages. I got that one covered in my floral painting above but Jerry's florals below are outstanding. I had time to start a second one but it is not finished yet. The muted gray color in the background (the negative shape) was achieved by watercolor with a little white gouache and applying and then dabbing with a Kleenex to give it more texture. We glued the larger pieces down first, tried to have a focal point, and to make an impression of a flower. We used watercolor to edges of flowers to round off some edges and to make interesting marks. Most of the painting is made from collaged pieces of watercolor painted Oriental rice papers or washi.

Click on the images to enlarge.



These two 11" x 15" paintings (above and below) are Jerry's and I love them both, don't you?

Books:
I will mention one of the books he has written that he told us about.
He feels that this book is important one to teach art history in the school system.
"Discovering Art History" by Davis. I found a third edition online used and it has 638 pages and about 9" x 12" so this will be enjoyable art tour across centuries for a long time.

Art Journal Page 98 and 99
I didn't make daily entries while I was packing or attending the Gerald Brommer workshop for 2 weeks. The thumbnail drawings at the top of page 99 are similar to Jerry's drawing exercises he does. He has no plans for them (he did make copies and glue some of them in a collage - so did I but that's later). He fills sketchbooks up with these so when it comes time to design a painting it's automatic. He will make these in airports or while waiting somewhere. The week one workshop was "Stained Papers and Collage" and week 2 was "Designing with Watercolor or Acrylics and Collage". I made a small 5" x 5" collage on 140 paper for my journal "Cowboy Kisses" and used wedging to create movement. Someone brought Hershey kisses for snacks one day and since I have a chocolate deficit those little kisses tags were all around my work place and I've found them in pockets and art supplies while unpacking. So why not put one in a collage to remind me of that week where we worked with Mr. Brommer or Dr. Jer and I sometimes called out for help.

Jerry Brommer Collage Workshop ~ First Projects

T or Tau Shape Design
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"


7 1/2" x 7 1/2" This was supposed to be a cruciform but after looking at this it needs to go off the top edge. I guess I have 2 T Shapes.


Bridge Design
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
All were collaged with acrylic matte medium on 300 pound Lana Rough paper. Jerry likes the rough for added texture. Most paintings contain several type designs. We were instructed to make one of each of these designs in a color of our choice of darks and lights. The class didn't just start gluing down various papers and hoping for the best, we did have some guidelines for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and included movement and a focal point. Jerry said "You make the perfect composition. You don't find it."

My nice clean palette before beginning to stain watercolor papers. If I had it to do over, I'd bring some palettes I wanted to clean out and redo. I had 3 that I worked from and someday I think I'll make a cool one, greens and blues, and one warm for reds and yellows, and then I can have a lot more colors. When using white gouache, it is difficult to keep your wells from becoming contaminated. We'd tear off pieces of the Oriental rice papers (washi) and make our colors by splattering and varying colors by adding some white gouache or black. Then we'd turn over our pieces to speed drying. Jerry said he'd set aside a staining day and maybe do reds for 30 minutes and blues for 30 minutes to build up his supply for maybe 6 months. He stores the pieces by color in clear plastic bags for the workshops.
Teaching procedure:
Before we'd begin a collage painting Jerry would show us many examples of the designs cut from art magazines, then he'd show us his own paintings and post them on the wall, then he'd give a demo - all great ways for us to learn. We knew where we needed to go and what to do and if we got lost along the way, Jerry would roam the room giving some hints "make it darker at the edges to keep your eye in" or "Primo. Stop." which was the BEST compliment.
He gave us a great hint for tearing the colored strips into our needed shapes by taking a brush loaded with water and draw with the water. It weakened the area and made it much easier to tear. If we needed straight areas we cut with a razor blade, craft knife or scissors.
Jerry would caution, "Don't fall in love with a part so much you can't change it. Put in the big shapes with reckless abandon. Just cover it. Use different sizes, shapes and values. Watch your negative areas as you want it all different."
American Artist
The June 2009 issue has a six page article written by Jerry, Capture a Sense of Place with on-site Travel Sketches. Without sufficient time to create full-scale paintings on location during a recent trip to Europe, he relied on graphite and ink sketches to capture the essence of the scenes visited and added watercolor washes once back in the studio. If you enjoy sketchbook journaling, you will enjoy this article.
Next post will show a floral and he said if you put in a pistil or stamen you get an F.

Gerald Brommer Workshop ~ Week One ~ Collage

Collage Figure
7" x 11"
Gerald Brommer has presented 2 weeks of workshops at the Artists' Showplace Gallery. I enjoyed the first week so much, Stained Papers and Collage, when an opportunity to take the second week came, Designing with Watercolor or Acrylics and Collage, I jumped at the chance. The above figure was not one of the assignments but by the end of the week I did a figure when we were on our own.
For the first few days we were working with pure collage with our stained watercolor washi papers and later we began adding more paint. We were cautioned against turning these into paintings but let some of the collage show.
We could add anything that would stick to the support, 300 pound watercolor paper, with acrylic mat medium.
Jerry said, "Don't talk to a collage artist about archival. Who cares if it lasts forever and if it starts to fall apart? Good. It will make it more interesting. Kurt Schwitters (20th century master of collage) used wine labels and newsprint."
We purchased a packet of 20 various washi papers about letter size and one of the samples had fragments of the Bangkok Daily News in it (certainly not archival). How wonderful and freeing is that. He also stated, "Paint to please yourselves and hope that others like it" and "Don't over think this. There are no mistakes with collage - just add another piece of paper until it gets so heavy you can't lift it."
Radial Design
11" x 11"
Radiating from a central core. One of about 12 designs we studied. I supplemented some of the painted washi papers with some acrylic painted pieces from the Anne Bagby workshop and from the Carrie Burns Brown workshop.
Jerry Brommer
Collage artist, story teller (the Hittite story was memorable) author of books, books, books, 35 plus art books and some are used in high schools and colleges, educator, juror and scholar and a very enthusiastic master of watercolor and collage painting methods. I guess it would be correct to say he wrote the book on it. Check back later for future posts on the workshop. There is great hope in collage that when your children put you in the "home" and you're not allowed to have scissors you can still enjoy collage, just tearing up and gluing it down again.