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Collage
Collage
The word collage comes from the French word ‘coller’ which means to ‘glue’ and that is what it is all about. Collage is the art of taking parts of something else and sticking it all together to create a new piece of Art. A collage can be put together from pieces of newspaper, magazines, and different papers whether printed or hand made, photographs, fabric, ribbon, sometimes even parts of another piece of Artwork. They can be carefully cut or ripped, there really isn’t any rules to this creative form and that makes it a lot of fun as well a great form of expression. Collage can include painting and drawing as well as the pasting on of extra pieces.
Collage is an art form that has really been around for hundreds of years but became incredibly popular at the beginning of the 20th Century. It does however vary between resources as to when exactly it became a recognised art form. There are many references and examples of Art where items have been stuck onto a piece but a lot of research states that it only really became a set art form in the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century, for example both the Tate Gallery and the Guggenheim Museum clearly state this in their records.
It is recorded that both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso used collage in their artwork. Braque used it in his charcoal drawings and Picasso used it in his oil paintings. In 1912 they worked together on various forms of collage. It is noted that Braque bought a roll of wallpaper that had an oak-grain design on it, cut out pieces of the paper and attached them to his charcoal drawings. Instead of wallpaper, Picasso used a patch of oilcloth in ‘Still Life with Chair Caning’; the patch had the design of the chair-cane on it.
When creating a collage you can be as conservative or as wild with what you use as you want. Layering is the technique to a good collage. As well as the aforementioned painting, drawing and pasting it is possible to add stamping and stencilling adding extra depth between layers.
The base that you start with can be anything that glue will adhere to. It does not have to be a plain canvas. Collage as an art form is a great way to play with texture and placement as well as colour.
The most important thing to remember is to use the relevant glue for the material that you are using as not all glues work for everything.
Tools and Materials needed
A variety of flat materials to cut or tear
Scissors
A paintbrush or tool for spreading the adhesive
A base to start with
Various adhesives such as glue stick, PVA glue, Gel medium, Mod-podge and perhaps even an epoxy based adhesive for gluing three dimensional ephemera
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