Sometimes you need to take a break from art!

And do more ART!!!  Ha!  Gotcha!  I've been addicted to this paper mache', figurative sculpting, art doll craziness for awhile now- its no secret!  But I do other stuff, too.  Besides yelling at kids because I'm washing clothes that aren't dirty but its easier to stuff them in the laundry than hang them up- I do other stuff.

I'm sharing this project with you because it falls under the category of "if I can do this-you can do this".    This lovely collage wall is part of my husbands pool room.  (Which I completely take over as my studio on a regular basis- "HELLLLOOOO!")  

I have a ton of photos from when we used to live in a tiny house on a beautiful river.  When our number of residents in that house became 4 it was necessary to sell it and buy a larger house not on water.  I miss that river.  

  I wanted to incorporate this history from our old life into our new life and hubby's pool room seemed like an ideal spot.  Frames however did not seem right- too fussy for this really contemporary room and I had a lot of these photo's to use up.

I decided to try mounting them on canvas with gesso.  But what to do around the edges?  I knew the photo paper would not bend well and I did not want cracks in the surface with white paper showing through.  So then this idea was born.  

I glued the photo onto the canvas and then went over the surface of the photo with gesso to seal it.  Depending on the picture itself I added a surface texture.  On this one I wanted to emphasize the waves of the water.  I wasn't crazy about the edge of the photo showing around the canvas which led to me using heavier gesso there to minimize it.  Then, I got a little crazy and added color to the gesso and painted away the edge.  In this instance I brought the color up into the painting around the edges and I really liked how it framed it.

I don't get everything right the first go round, just like everyone else.  This winter scene had some issues with the artist cutting the picture a little too small.  It works best if you take the picture right to the edge of the canvas.  And then when I tried to use paint and gesso to disguise the edges- well lets just say I'm still learning about color.  Again, this color change would be less noticeable if it occurred at the edge and then becomes the side of the canvas.  

But honestly, it really looks better in real life than it does in this blog post.  I wanted to show you where I went  astray while figuring out this technique.  I purposely chose the pictures that showed up the problem areas:)

Here's one where I got real crazy and I love it!  I wanted to grow the picture longer but not taller. Plus, I'm impatient and didn't want to mess with having something re-developed.  This was the view from my lawn.  Because the trees were small in the picture I didn't have to be some great technical painter to get this to look realistic.  I paid attention to light and dark and shape.  I think it was important that the photo not be placed dead center in the composition either.

I used to walk this hill.  Its the road down into our little area on the river.  It is called "Devil's Hole" because its way down and in the morning the mist would be heavy on the water...beautiful and creepy!

In this one I used a more liquid finish because I didn't want the gesso to obscure the tiny detail.  I also used some color on the surface of the photo.  I don't know if you can see where.  I think on some of the leaves to pop them out more.  Again- there was some issue at the edges.  If you are feeling like you don't want to try to match up colors I suggest that you use a contrasting solid color and either keep it on the side of the canvas or bring it up around the edges.  Mostly I suggest that you don't be too hard on yourself:)

This one is another one that I wanted to make longer.  I really used a heavy texture in the white area to simulate the snow and disguise the edge.

See how nice it looks all put together?  You aren't really noticing the problem areas now, are you?   How do you like my "hippie" sign?  It cracks me up- sorry hippies!

I don't know if this falls under the category of photo art,  photo collage, arts and crafts, mixed media or just plain fun!  You decide.

So what do you think?  Wanna give it a try?