collage cards

One of my visual activities during my studio residency at Signal Arts Centre was replenishing my supply of collage cards, which are always handy to have around for those special occasions or short correspondences. So when packing items to bring down to the studio, I made sure to include a supply of card stock, pva glue, glue stick and a folder full coloured paper scraps and bits of paper that I thought I would make use of. 

The first group of cards were simply based on a recent painting from the Memory Is My Homeland series. Florence Road: Butterfly Wall can be seen here and information on both the work for Memory Is My Homeland and the past four years of autumn residencies at Signal Arts Centre can be easily searched for on this blog.

As is my usual practice, I make several collage cards at a time with variations on a theme. The same but different!

Last summer I did a major clearout of books and magazines. I have been a subscriber to Aramco World for at least 20 years now (it is similar to National Geographic but with a focus on the promotion of understanding between Western and Muslim cultures). Before putting the magazines in the bin to be recycled, however, I meticulously went through each issue in order to rescue recipes (included in most issues) and colour images for later use. Some of these images made excellent background patterns for collage cards.

Here are a number of floral cards I made. At home my xmas cactus was blooming so I had done a few sketches in preparation for collages. The iris and wild rose are meaningful stand-bys for me.

I created another group of collage cards with the chimneys and wires motif that I haven't fully explored in my work.

Of course Fort Carré found it's way into the new collage cards - with the studio feeling positively wintry some days I can't help but reminisce with myself about the south of France! I haven't been to Antibes since 2018...

The last collage cards I made at the Signal studio are based on a photo I took of a rainbow and tree outside my house.