Title:
Collage Study 1
Artist: Mary A. Gravelle
Media: Oil on canvas, 20" x 24"
About this image:
I painted this image in the Spring of 2002. It is my first
oil painting completed in a college art course, Painting 1 at
Manchester Community College, Manchester, Connecticut,
Instructor: Rick Harden.
I found this to be the perfect first oil painting project for
the semester.
We set up still life displays from items of our choice from
Rick's well stocked shelves of odd pieces. Then, he laid out old wallpaper books and
instructed us to create a
collage of our still life out of the wallpaper sample pages using different colors and textures.
This was going to teach us basic color mixing and texture
techniques. After we completed the collage we were instructed to
paint a picture that looked exactly like our collage.
My stomach sank. "Are you kidding me?" I said to
him. This seemed like an impossible task since I knew nothing of
the medium and he had taught us no technique yet. We were to learn from
the materials of the wallpaper and improvise our own technique
for creating the colors and textures. This would also begin our
thinking process about relating size and proportion of real
objects to the painted canvas.
Isn't it funny that an innocent canvas, paint, and a collage
that I loved, could instill such fear in me? Nonetheless, eight
hours later, an almost perfect replica of my collage emerged. Be
assured that these eight hours were filled with fears, doubts,
and disbelief that I would be able to pull this caper off.
The day of the due date, I spent four hours in the class
studio putting on the final touches and really
"seeing" the task before me. Being able to see every
little nuance and detail and converting that into a visual
representation is a lot like making love to the object of intent
-- caressing the canvas with each stroke, seeing and feeling my
way.
I wanted my painting to look like the collage as much as was
possible with my beginner's skill level. It was as if I needed
to respect the collage as much as respect the oil painting that
was taking form by mirroring themselves to each other.
I would later discover at the Queens MOMA Picasso/Matisse
exhibit that Picasso painted in the collage style. I was
fascinated by these paintings since I had completed one myself.
And of course, Matisse became famous for his
"cutouts", decoupages produced by cutting out colors
of painted paper and applied by his assistants under his
direction.
What a sense of pride and accomplishment I felt when I received the award in
class that night for the painting that looked most like the
collage!
I was ready to tackle whatever the next project entailed. I
felt like I could conquer anything now. That feeling was
replaced slightly with a healthy dose of doubt again well into the next
project; my first still life.
However, with each oil painting I did that semester, my confidence in
perfecting the medium grew. I cannot wait to take Painting 2.
About my art process:
From taking these college level art courses, I am learning
the differences between academic and expressive process art. I
hope to integrate them one of these days. I think it is already
happening. I can see evidence of this integration in my piece, Beautiful
Bountiful Fruit Tree with the expressive tree and its
realistic fruit.
I have intentionally hung out doing expressive process art
for about ten years. I wanted to insure that the expression
within was duly rewarded. I didn't want to inhibit what was
inside by having to think in art world terms.
I have heard horror stories from so many artists about how
art school professors had intimated and judged and ridiculed
them for having no talent that I gave myself the gift of
expressing what needed to be expressed in the way it needed to
come out.
Now, fully grounded in my own expression, I find that I want
to give that expression its full bounty. I want to pay attention
to detail and relate what I see inside and be able to make it
look like what I see. I want to convey the reality with
expressiveness.
THE END
What are your thoughts on this image and/or the writing? Please post
your comments and share a little of yourself with us today.
Thanks.
Posted: March 7, 2003
Written by Mary A. Gravelle
© 2003 Mary A. Gravelle
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