Cheerful and Colorful Paintings

Cheerful and Colorful Paintings in Oil, Acrylic, Mixed Media and Collage
nancystandlee@sbcglobal.net

Monday, December 13, 2010

Derek Gores Collage Portrait Workshop ~ Florida by Texas Artist Nancy Standlee



"Dance Me"
18" Collage Portrait


I'll never look at a magazine page the same way again since returning LATE this morning from the Derek Gores Collage Portrait Workshop, December 11-12, 2010 at the Brevard Art Museum, Renee Foosaner Education Center, Melbourne, FL. The workshop was over at 4:00 PM Sunday and plans were to return the rental car, catch the 6:28p to Atlanta but the plans did not take into account for Atlanta's bad weather and Delta slowing down. Instead of a DFW 11:23p arrival time it was more like leave Atlanta at 1:00 am and not getting into my bed until 3:00 am but it was certainly worth the waiting time to meet 22 new artist friends and study with this famous collage artist. Did I get anything productive done in all these waiting times and hours? No - just purchased more magazines to tear up and to try to quiet my buzzing head filled with torn paper collage images.
The Students:
We had 22 students, 21 ladies and one male, and plus one male observer part time. It probably is a draw for distance traveled between me and the lady from Rhode Island but I bet I win on longest time to get back home. I've never been in this area of FL and I met people from Melbourne, Kissimmee, Titusville, Cocoa Beach - names vaguely familiar but now you can put a face to the names and definitely add some Facebook friends.
The class description:
"In this collage portraiture workshop Derek will teach you to use torn paper to capture a portrait in a fresh new way! You will make one finished portrait of any person you choose. Or if you're inspired to make a collage of something other than a person, that is fine too! Derek will demonstrate, and guide you through the process of drawing, selecting your colors, and building up your collage layer by layer. "
I chose to keep some friends and do my own portrait. I took the photo in my kitchen using the gorilla pod on the kitchen table with a timed feature on the camera.
The Class:
Saturday was spent getting our images down on canvas and discussing composition and scale and positioning that first piece of collage paper. (I brought my piece drawn off so it gave me some walking around and observing time.) We were urged to use the biggest pieces first to glue down and get it covered in 30 minutes - NOT me or anyone else. Derek then warned us not to wait to get those eyes in until 3:30 Sunday. That's one reason my background is nice and layered is putting off working with the features. He had one rule for us "Don't use hair for HAIR." On my portrait if you click on the image to enlarge you can see some diamond jewelry pieces I've used for hair. (I brought some fur images just in case.) I had ripped out some magazine pages and divided them into colors in jumbo plastic bags with appropriate labels, red, black, text, personal items, white, etc. but I'm not for sure I'd need to do that next time or just maybe for the dominant color.
Derek was available to the class, answered our questions and spent a lot of time walking between the tables consulting with each student. In the slide show I didn't get a photo from each artist I'm sorry to say and I don't have the names of the work with the artist.
Derek spoke of having a history of time in art and my piece does have a history, the too white stage, then my neighbor Karen had gotten a beautiful glow with sewing pattern pieces, so I did that, didn't like the effect and added more white pieces while remembering what my collage teacher, Gerald Brommer said.. "You can keep adding collage until you can't pick it up."
Derek described his way of working as random and couldn't give us a definite sequence to follow and advised us to work large, loose and keep adding layers until you get it right and let the painting take you where it wants to go, ending up with a collage painting that is more than you could have imagined on your own.
I remembered a Pablo Picasso quote: "I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else."

Derek Gores Collage Workshop June, 2011 in Texas
If you would like to attend a Derek Gores collage workshop in 2011 check with Dena at the Wenmohs Ranch. I'll see you there as I'm already signed up and thanks Derek for my first portrait collage workshop in FL. He is scheduled for another workshop in FL in February if you can't wait until June. Thanks Florida friends for your hospitality and help with restaurants and hints and now Dena invites you to Texas to take with Derek in June.


BLOG:...............http://NancyStandlee.blogspot.com

WEBSITE:.........http://NancyStandlee.com

WEBSITE:.........http://CanvasbyCanvas.com


PAINTED PAPER COLLAGE PAINTINGS ~ TORN PAPER PAINTINGS ~ WATERMEDIA ~
COLLAGE ART ~ MIXED MEDIA TEXTURED ABSTRACT PAINTING ~
~ TEXAS DAILY PAINTER
~ NANCY STANDLEE CONTEMPORARY ART ~


Contact NancyStandlee@sbcglobal.net




Mouse over slides for captions:

15 comments:

jgr said...

Hi Nancy,
First: I'm glad you made it back safe and sound-it is still windy and cold here (ATL). Second: what a great photo to work from, you are extremely photogenic and WOW I love your collage, it's very fresh and vibrant-Thanks for sharing the technique, I'd like to try it sometime.

Nancy Standlee said...

Oh, it was cold there last night but it was a great workshop and I'd do it again in a minute, waits or not and try the collage it is great.

Karen said...

It was so nice meeting you in Derek's class. I enjoyed it so much. I do need to do a bit of tweaking on mine and then start on some others.
Love your blog.

Feel free to tag my workshop photos that I've posted on facebook and take any that you want.

Nancy Standlee said...

Thanks Karen.. thanks for being my FB friend and I'll go check your photos now and glad to meet you also.

Connie Michael said...

Nancy, great blog entry and slideshow. There was some terrific work produced! I really liked your portrait.

Nancy Standlee said...

Thanks Connie.. wish you could have been with me on this one for sure.

Eva said...

Nancy you have certainly mastered this collage technique. I knew it was you as soon as I saw the collage.(Even though you are prettier) Great job!
Yep, I feel sorry for anyone going through our Atlanta airport at any time of the year.
Thanks for sharing your workshop with us.Love that about your blog!

Nancy Standlee said...

Thanks Eva and it's interesting to me that you recognized me..that is neat. You had to wait for a flight to be called to get a seat because of the large numbers of people coming in and delayed flights. Glad I made it home!

joanieART said...

Fabulous portrait, Nancy....just love the newspaper hair! Kudos.

Nancy Standlee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nancy Standlee said...

Thanks so much, Joanie.

WW said...

Nancy, you lucky gal. How nice that you got to take a workshop from Derek Gores. I love his work. Wouldn't mind taking one of his sometime either.
Looks like you and the class caught on quickly. Great work!

Nancy Standlee said...

Thanks, Wanda. It was a big treat to get to fly to FL and collage for those 2 days with Derek and I've signed up for his TX class in June. I need to practice at home this week but haven't gotten to it. Love your seagull.

Anonymous said...

wonderful, i love them.

Nancy Standlee said...

Thanks for the comment nvantruc