Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 167 (Santa Rosa)

A new collage, this one experimenting with somewhat more organic shapes than I usually use. This is Untitled Collage No. 167 (Santa Rosa), January 14, 2017, acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. Image size 20.0 x 26.9cm (7.9 x 10.6 inches). Matted to 16 x 20 inches. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 166 (Santa Rosa)

A new collage. This one draws on a batch of new monoprints in warm tones ranging from cream to raspberry red.

This is Untitled Collage No. 166 (Santa Rosa), January 14, 2017, acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper (handwritten music), collage. Image size 25.3 x 26.3cm (10.0 x 10.4 inches). Matted to 16 x 20 inches. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 165 (Santa Rosa)

A new collage—a diptych of sorts that pairs a straight monoprint in pinks and orange with a blue-oval studded monoprint in streaky blue. The subtleties of the blues don't quite come through in the photograph, but this is a fair facsimile.

This is Untitled Collage No. 165 (Santa Rosa), January 5, 2017, acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. Image size 25.5 x 15.6cm (10.0 x 6.1 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 collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 164 (Santa Rosa)

A new collage drawing on the results of a recent morning of making new monoprints.

This is Untitled Collage No. 164 (Santa Rosa). January 4, 2017. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper, collage. 25.8 x 17.5cm (10.1 x 6.9in). Matted to 20 x 16 inches. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse
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Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 162 (Santa Rosa)

A new collage--small, layered, and blue. 

This is Untitled Collage No. 162 (Santa Rosa). December 31, 2016. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. 13 x 7.9cm (5.1 x 3.1in). Matted to 14 x 11 inches. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage N. 161 (Santa Rosa)

My latest piece is another diminutive one—just about three inches square. This one uses various leftover scraps from other work but also incorporates a piece of hand-written music with scribbles. Fellow collage artist Sherry Parker gave me a stack of old music that I've been going through. It's so visually appealing that it's hard the resist using it.

This is Untitled Collage No. 161 (Santa Rosa). Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper (handwritten music), collage. December 18, 2016. 8.2 x 7.6cm (3.2 x 3in). Matted to 14 x 11 inches. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 160 (Santa Rosa)

My latest collage, my first in several weeks. This one uses found Japanese paper and several subtly different shades of off-white monoprinted papers of my own creation. Together these were originally part of an abandoned monochrome experiment. I've coupled the pale overlapping lays with an abortive black and red juxtaposition from a few months back that I had abandoned as well. Paired, they finally began to make some kind of sense to me. The subtleties of the monochrome areas are lost in the photograph here, but it's a reasonable facsimile.

This is Untitled Collage No. 160 (Santa Rosa). December 11, 2016. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper, collage. Image size 19.9 x 27.2cm (7.8 x 10.7 inches). Matted to 16 x 20 inches. Signed on the mat, signed and dated on the reverse.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 159 (Santa Rosa)

My latest collage is another predominately green one, using sheets of monoprinted paper I made when in the mood for green. This is Untitled Collage No. 159 (Santa Rosa). November 3, 2016. Acrylic on Paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. 20.3 x 27.6cm (8.0 x 10.9 inches). Matted to 16 x 20 inches. Signed and dated on reverse. Signed on the mat. I haven't been in the mood to create art since the election, I'm afraid.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 158 (Santa Rosa)

Almost caught up with posting recent collage work. Here's another new one. This piece is now on view on The Art Wall at Shige Sushi, Cotati, California (through December 31, 2016), along with many others. Come by and see it, and me, and have a glass of wine--or two--at the OPENING RECEPTION on MONDAY, November 7, 5:00PM to 7:30PM.

This is Untitled Collage No. 158 (Santa Rosa). October 22, 2016. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper, cotton thread, collage. 15.3 x 20.1cm (6.0 x 7.9in). Matted to 20 x 16 inches. Signed and dated on the reverse. Signed on the mat.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 157 (Santa Rosa)

My latest collage. This is another done during the recent Sonoma County Art Trails open studios event. This piece (and many others) is now on view on The Art Wall at Shige Sushi (through December 31, 2016, opening reception Monday, November 7, 5:00PM to 7:30PM.) Come by and see it, and me, and have a glass of wine--or two.

Untitled Collage No. 157 (Santa Rosa). October 17, 2016. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper, collage. 30.8 x 25.5cm (12.1 x 10.0in). Matted to 20 x 16 inches. Signed and dated on the reverse. Signed on the mat.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 156 (Santa Rosa)

My latest collage piece. This was done during the recent Sonoma County Art Trails open studios event.

This is Untitled Collage No. 156 (Santa Rosa). October 16, 2016. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. 21.8 x 31.6cm (8.6 x 12.4in). Matted to 16 x 20 inches. Signed and dated on the reverse. Signed on the mat.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site.

Art I'm Making: New Collages

Since last posting images, I've finished three new collages. These are numbers 153, 154, and 155. I don't give my collages titles because to me they are mostly problems of composition. Inevitably, people see images in them (and I do myself sometimes), but these are coincidental. I intend no subject. I seek no subject. From top to bottom:

Untitled Collage No. 153 (Santa Rosa) September 5, 2016. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monotype, collage. 23.3 x 18.6cm (9.4 x 7.25in). Matted to 20 x 16 inches. Signed and dated on reverse. Signed on the mat. This one is a fairly simple overlay of hard-edged forms over a flowing black-on-white monoprint, a study in motion and stasis.

Untitled Collage No. 154 (Santa Rosa) September 20, 2016. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monotype, found paper (handwritten music), collage. 18.0 x 23.1cm (7.13 x 9.13in). Matted to 16 x 20 inches. Signed and dated on reverse. Signed on the mat. This one sets horizontal linear effects of dark blue-black monoprinted elements against verticals created by up-ended staff paper.

Untitled Collage No. 155 (Santa Rosa) October 12, 2016. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monotype, found paper (handwritten music, Japanese textile stencil, fragment of a doodle bot drawing), collage. 17.6 x 15.1cm 6.9 x 5.9in). Matted to 20 x 16 inches. Signed and dated on reverse. Signed on the mat. A study in blues accented by green and rust patches. Here I've used found music again, but I've used it more for the blue pencil marks on the staff paper than for the linear quality of the staff paper itself.

Click on the images for larger views. For more of my collage work, visit my collage site at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can see my work in person during the Sonoma County Art Trails open studios event, always the middle two weeks of October--this year, October 8, 9 and October 15, 16. This year, I will be Studio No. 141.

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 119 (Santa Rosa)

Another new collage, this one using some of the newest monoprints I've made. The linear textures are the result of gently rubbing paper laid over a thin layer of paint with a high-tech baren. The paint is rolled out on a sheet of glass with a brayer. The traditional Japanese baren is a coil of hemp rope on a wood support overlaid with a bamboo leaf. My baren is two arrays of small ball bearings embedded in a pair of perforated plexiglass discs. Used just so, it transfers delicate parallel lines to the paper. I've used sheets with these line patterns to contrast texturally with sheets of more solid color, creating a dynamic counterpoint.

Untitled Collage No. 119 (Santa Rosa). November 11, 2015. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. Image size 18.8 x 19cm. Matted to 20 x 16 inches. Signed and dated on the reverse. Signed on the mat.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more, visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/.

Art I'm Making: New Collage (November 7, 2015)

I've just finished a new collage, drawing on a large group of new monoprinted sheets I've made, this time using a roller to roll out the paint onto my glass plate rather than spreading the paint with a brush. Using the roller creates a different kind of texture. I've used mostly Prussian blue and violet shades. This latest collage uses these new sheets but also some of the orange sheets I made last month during the Sonoma County Art Trails open studio event.

This is Untitled Collage No. 118 (Santa Rosa). November 7, 2015. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint on paper, graphite, collage. Image size 11.1 x 13cm. Matted to  11 x 14 inches. Signed and dated on the reverse. Signed on the mat.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more, visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/.

Art I'm Making: Two More Collages

These are the last of the collages I made during and just after the recent Sonoma County Art Trails open studio event using some new papers I've made in browns, oranges, and pinks. They are Untitled Collage No. 116 (Santa Rosa) and Untitled Collage No. 117 (Santa Rosa), both from the third week of October.

No. 116 (upper image) uses paper made by monoprinting off a sheet of glass that I deliberately left uncleaned from the print that preceded it. I like the map-like effect the overlap of colors created. October 22, 2015. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. Image size 17.1 x 17.6cm. Matted to 16 x 20 inches. Signed and dated on reverse. Signed on the mat.

No. 117 (lower image) is a very small piece, less than 2 x 3 inches, using some scraps of the new papers and bits and pieces from older work. October 23, 2015. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. Image size 6 x 7cm. Matted to 11 x 14 inches. Signed and dated on reverse. Signed on the mat.

Click on the images for larger views. For more, visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/.

Art I'm Making: More Recent Work

Here's some more collage work using the brown, orange and pink papers I've made recently. This is Untitled Collage No. 115 (Santa Rosa). It uses a speckled orange sheet but also some old indigo paper and a remnant of the sheet of antique silver leaf a fellow artist recently gave me. I've allowed a flap of the blue at the bottom to ride on top of the paper underneath it to give an overlapping effect with a shadow.

Untitled Collage No. 115 (Santa Rosa). Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, collage. October 20, 2015. Image size 6.8 x 9.8cm. Matted to 11 x 14 inches. Signed and dated on the reverse. Signed on the mat.

Click on the image for a larger view. For more, visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.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: 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: Art at the Source Open Studios Event (June 6-7 and June 13-14 2015)

Art at the Source--Open Studios. Tomorrow, June 6 and Sunday June 7. Then again the following weekend June 13 and June 14. Showing photography, printmaking, and abstract monoprint collage at Studio No.48, in Sebastopol. 10:00AM to 5:00PM