Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 270 (Santa Rosa)

Here is a collage finished just before our Art Trails open studio event here in Sonoma County last year. It uses my usual monotyped papers, but the dark piece in the upper left corner is a fragment of bark cloth. This is Untitled Collage No. 270 (Santa Rosa). September 28, 2022. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monotype, found paper (bark cloth fragment), collage. Image size: 18.8 x 16.2cm (7.4 x 6.4 inches). Matted to 20 x 16 inches. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse. 

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my abstract monotype collages, visit my website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/. Even better, if you're in the Northern California area this autumn, come visit the studio and see recent (and older) work in person. The Art Trails event dates this year are September 30, October 1, 7, and 8. More than 120 studios will be open around the county on all four days from 10:00AM to 5:00PM.

Art I'm Making: Art Trails 2021

It's almost that time of year again—time for Art Trails, Sonoma County's premier open studio event. Moved up a month this year, studios will be open on two weekends in September (September 18, 19 and 25, 26) from 10:00AM to 5:00PM on each of the four days. Come see some of my recent work in person. Come for the art or just come by to say hello. I'm looking forward to it. 

 

For more of my abstract monotype collage work, visit my website. https://ctalcroft.wixsite.com/collage-site  

 

Art I'm Making: Art Trails 2018

Art I'm Making: Art Trails 2017 Second Weekend, October 28 and 29

Art Trails 2017 FINAL WEEKEND this weekend, after the one-week postponement caused by the recent, tragic fires in Sonoma County. We continue to mourn the losses here, but taking refuge in art seems one good response to the tragedy among many others. Artist studios will be open from 10AM to 5PM Saturday and Sunday, October 28 and 29. I would love to see you at Studio 61. There's much new art to see, including one or two pieces finished in the past week.

Art I'm Making: Art Trails Update

Because of the recent Northbay wildfires, Art Trails 2017 has been moved back one week, but the event will go on. Artists that are able to open their studios will do so on the weekends of October 21-22 and October 28-29. Note, however, that some artists will be open only one weekend. Some artists, sadly, have lost everything and will not be able to participate, but more than 140 artists will be opening their doors and showing art on at least one of the two weekends, most on both. Many artists will be donating a portion of sales to a support fund set up by The Sebastopol Center for the Arts to aid artists affected by the fires. For details on who is participating and where, see the Center for the Arts website for the most up-to-date information. I will be open both weekends.

Art I'm Making: Art Trails Open Studios 2017

A YEAR OF NEW WORK: The Sonoma County Art Trails open studio event (October 14-15 and 21-22) will soon be upon us. This year, I'm studio number 61. I'll be showing abstract monotype-based collage, photography, and printmaking again at 973 Stone Castle Lane, Santa Rosa, 95405. Come by and see what I've been up to in the past year.

To see more of my work, visit my website at:
http://ctalcroft.wixsite.com/collage-site

Art I'm Making: Art Trails 2016--Opening Reception Tonight at the Sebastopol Center For the Arts (September 23, 2016)

If you're local to the San Francisco Bay Area, you can see my work in person during the upcoming Sonoma County Art Trails Open Studios event, October 8, 9 and October 15, and 16. I'm studio No. 141 this year.

OPENING RECEPTION for the preview show at The Sebastopol Center for the Arts is tonight, September 23, 6:00PM to 8:00PM. http://sonomacountyarttrails.org for more information.

To see more of my work, visit my website at http://ctalcroft.wixsite.com/collage-site

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 110 (Santa Rosa)

I've been taking a break from the intense collage-making activity of the past two years, but here is the last one I made over the summer, Untitled Collage No. 110 (Santa Rosa). This one uses more found paper than usual. The white area on the left with a signature on it is an antique book page. The black area at the top is a piece of a platinum/palladium test print made by my photographer friend Barbara Elliott. The other pieces are papers I've made myself. Image size: 17.5 x 24.6cm, matted to 16 x 20 inches. Completed July 27, 2015. I'll start making more collages soon, as Art Trails 2015 is just around the corner.

 Click for a larger view. Visit my studio  (Studio No. 63) during the 2015 Sonoma County Art Trails open studios event, Saturday and Sunday, October 10th and 121h and Saturday and Sunday, October 17th and 18th, 2015.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 109 (Santa Rosa)

I've been taking a break from my comparatively intense activity as a collage maker in the past two years and I've been lazy about posting the newest ones. Here's a fairly new piece, Untitled Collage No. 109 (Santa Rosa), from early July. It's currently up in my show going on at The Spinster Sisters until October 4, 2015. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. Image size: 14.6 x 18.7cm. Matted to 16 x 20 inches. Signed on reverse and on the mat. I didn't think about it at the time, but this a rather elemental piece using black, white, and the three primary colors.

  Click for a larger view. Visit my studio  (Studio No. 63) during the 2015 Sonoma County Art Trails open studios event, Saturday and Sunday, October 10th and 121h and Saturday and Sunday, October 17th and 18th, 2015.

Art I'm Making: Newer Collage

I've been taking a break from making art for the past couple of weeks. I've had a lot of work to do: I've had trouble with two different cars; I've had trouble with my Epson printer and Epson has been decidedly unhelpful and unsympathetic about it; I've put up a new show (the work of Santa Rosa photographer Barbara Elliott, at Shige Sushi, in Cotati); and I recently put up a show of my own work at The Spinster Sisters, in Santa Rosa. So, I've been busy.

Here's one of my more recent pieces, however, from back in June. Untitled Collage No. 108 (Santa Rosa). June 16, 2015. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper (antique silver leaf), collage. 6.8 x 8.8cm. My show of recent work--abstract photography and monoprint collage (as well as a couple of older prints)--at The Spinster Sisters will be up through October 4, 2015.

  Click for a larger view. Visit my studio  (Studio No. 63) during the 2015 Sonoma County Art Trails open studios event, Saturday and Sunday, October 10th and 121h and Saturday and Sunday, October 17th and 18th, 2015.

Art I'm Making: A Collage in Prussian Blue (May 6, 2015)

A new collage: An arrangement of tones in Prussian blue, with a couple of sidesteps into other colors. Untitled Collage No. 99 (Santa Rosa). Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. May 6, 2015. Image size 8 x 11.6cm. Sometimes I think I'm happiest in Prussian blue.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more, visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/. Or, come see my work in person during the Art at the Source open studios event, June 6 & 7 and June 13 & 14, 2015. I'll be showing at Studio 48, in Sebastopol.

Art I'm Making: New Collages (April 2015)

Two new collages since last reporting: Untitled Collage No. 97 (Santa Rosa) and Untitled Collage No. 98 (Santa Rosa), finished on the 14th and the 18th respectively. Both use some new Prussian blue papers I've made using a fairly thick layer of paint that I then raked through with a tool to expose the paper below, leaving streaks of thin, transparent color between thicker ridges. I like the luminous quality the thin paint creates. There is something that puts me in mind of stained glass in Untitled Collage No. 97 (Santa Rosa), shown at the top of the page.*

The second piece uses scraps of the Prussian blue paper at the bottom and in the main form toward the upper right. The very pale lavender background is left over from some recent paper painting. The reddish purples are scraps from last summer.

Click on the images for a larger view. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player). Come see my work in person during the Art at the Source open studios event, June 6 & 7 and June 13 & 14, 2015--at Studio 48, in Sebastopol.

*[I later decided No. 97 was subpar. I destroyed it and created an entirely new piece, which is now pictured. ]

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 96 (Santa Rosa)--or the case of the purloined sandpaper

For weeks, a scrap of fine sandpaper that my son had been using for something and failed to put away, despite repeated requests, kept staring at me every time I walked by the place it rested, on the edge of a shelf, at the top of the stairs. Today, it finally got cleaned up. I cleaned it up. Though it was, technically speaking, already mine, I stole it. I used it in a collage today. I transformed it from an annoyance into a field of grey that was just the thing needed in the place I put it. I made art today. Untitled Collage No. 96 (Santa Rosa). Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper (sandpaper). Image size 19.8 x 26.3cm.



Click on the images for a larger view. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player). Come see my work in person during the Art at the Source open studios event, June 6 & 7 and June 13 & 14, 2015--at Studio 48, in Sebastopol.

Art I'm Making: Two New Collages (March-April 2015)

Here are my two most recent collage pieces. Both were created at the end of March. With this post I'm finally caught up. Untitled Collage No. 94 (Santa Rosa), shown at the top here, uses some new orange and lavender papers I've created along with scraps from last year made using Sennelier's "Blush Tint" and "Neutral Tint" paints. As I've said before, I think the Sennelier acrylics are especially beautiful, although I occasionally use colors made by other manufacturers.

Untitled Collage No. 95 (Santa Rosa) is diminutive. At 5.8 x 6.7cm (about 2 x 3 inches), it's the smallest collage I've made to date. It uses scraps left over from other collages and the last bits of a piece of pastel-covered paper (the rust areas) I got from another artist. I'm now working on a new collage that will use piece of a pastel drawing of my own.

Click on the images for a larger view. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player). Come see my work in person during the Art at the Source open studios event, June 6 & 7 and June 13 & 14, 2015--at Studio 48, in Sebastopol.

Art I'm Making: New Collage

I finished this piece in the middle of March. It uses test strips made by local photographer Barbara Elliot, who is learning the platinum/palladium printing process. I visited her studio not long ago to talk about showing her work on The Art Wall at Shige Sushi, which I'm now curating. We'll be doing a show of her work later this year. While talking she showed me some of the tests the was doing and I noticed these scraps with penciled lines and numbers on them. She kindly gave them to me when I expressed an interest in them as collage material. This is Untitled Collage No. 93 (Santa Rosa). Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper (platinum/palladium test strips with graphite). Image size: 16 x 21.7cm.

Click on the images for a larger view. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player). Come see my work in person during the Art at the Source open studios event, June 6 & 7 and June 13 & 14, 2015--at Studio 48, in Sebastopol.

Art I'm Making: New Collages (October 12, 2014)

During the first two days of Art Trails, I spent a lot of time on the floor working on collages in between visits by people coming to see my studio. I had time to finish several new collages. Here are Untitled Collage No. 73 (Santa Rosa) and Untitled Collage No. 74 (Santa Rosa). The first of these plays with the space a little. I've left the edges at slightly odd angles on two sides, which gives the piece a somewhat playful feel.

The second uses a rather large swath of green to balance the dark forms at the left and top edges. The green is offset by a beige circle.

Sonoma County Art Trails 2014 continues next weekend (October 18 and 19). My studio is No. 125. Stop by to see my work in person. I'm also showing photography and printmaking.



Click on the images for larger views. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player).

Art I'm Making: Last Collages Before Art Trails

The Sonoma County Art Trails open studio event, held each year in October, will soon be upon us. I'll be participating this year for the first time, showing mostly abstract collages made from hand-printed papers I make myself, but also showing some of my photography and printmaking. The event is on two weekends--October 10 and 11 and October 18 and 19. More than 160 artists across the county will open their studios to show their work and to show how that work is created. For more information, visit the Sonoma County Art Trails website. My studio is No. 125. Stop by if you have a chance. All studios are open 10:00AM to 5:00PM on each of the four days. I've been busy with preparations, but I've finished two more collages in the past couple of weeks--Untitled Collage No. 71 (Santa Rosa) and Untitled Collage No. 72 (Santa Rosa). 

Click on the images for larger views. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player).

Art I'm Making: New Collages

I continue to work making collages--five new ones since last reporting. These are "Untitled Collage No. 41" through "Untitled Collage No. 45." Needless to say, I'm pleased with them--or I wouldn't consider them finished works--but I particularly like No. 43, No. 44, and No. 45 (Shown at top, in that order). I've just cleaned out my piles and piles of painted paper scraps. I now need to get out the paper and paints and create some new raw materials. The next work I do will reflect the colors and textures of this new raw material, while these last pieces share traits of earlier pieces.

I'm happy to report that the Sonoma County Art Trails jury chose me as a new Art Trails participant for 2014, so I'll be opening up my "studio"--just a space on my office floor, actually--for the open studio weekends in October. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by. Click on the pictures for larger views. For more, use the "Art I'm Making" tab at right.

Click on the images for larger views. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage and photography website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player).

Visit my studio during the 2014 Sonoma County Art Trails open studios event, Saturday and Sunday, October 11th and 12th and Saturday and Sunday, October 18th and 19th, 2014.