This last week I have accepted the Facebook art challenge and posted three paintings a day for five days. The paintings I showed and the few that didn't make my cut but were in my folder are also included, to show my thinking process. I wanted to post my favorites, for no other reason than to share.

Collage is my own challenge. I love the way it builds the painting with rough and raw edges to design an image

Pastel paintings from old photos are a dip in history. I'm not so much interested in copying as I am in interpreting, because the color is all new.

Dogs and pickup trucks started with a show we had at the Apple Shed. It was the real west, and nothing is more real in the west than a dog in the back of a pickup truck.

Landscapes and plein aire painting are just plain necessary. Again, they are not done for any other reason than to enjoy the out-doors, interpret the dirt, the foliage and the sky, and to breath fresh air.  BLUE WITH RED KEYNOTESabstraction with an emphasis on a color scheme with keynotes

My abstracts are the loves of my life. Of course no one understands them. I think, however, that abstracts are secret windows to the mind. They tattle out of school and they are not meant, therefore, to be understood. They are paintings that reveal a character: one that no one can describe. Except tp elicit a feeling, or a concept, or even an epiphany. The titles tell the motivator, even if it is as shallow as blue and orange. 

I always think January will be a time to get all those things I've put off done- a kind of reverse resolution. And every year I am surprised to see I have so many new and continuous activities to keep me occupied. So I do what any self-respecting procrastinator would do.

I have been fairly faithful to do a collage a day and have two boxes full of these little gems. Some of the collages are mood and fancy pieces. Quotes and sayings are apt to appear. Since these are merely random trials, I have no obligations for perfection or style. They are simply thoughts and discoveries before the sun even gets in the window, which is not that early this time of year.  4. WITHOUT THE DARK THEIR IS NO LIGHT024 another time of radial design Some are investigations of composition. Radial composition has attracted me. The little collages are a chance to explore placement and rhythm for these pieces.

12. BIRD FLYING007 Radial composition starts with the center of interest and radiates out from it. The easiest way to create a radial composition is to find a location on the 'tic-tac-toe' grid that can bound the collage and set the center of interest on one of the crosses of the grid. Above the circle shape is the main point - or center of interest. From there the bird and color expand.

As any form of meditation or early morning practice, the morning collages help focus and center my approach to the rest of the day. And all those projects I have to catch up on and events to celebrate.

In May of last year, I took a class at Weehawken Arts in Ridgway. The class, taught by the tandem muses Meredith Nemirov and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, combined the aspects of collage and poetry. Rosemerry is the poet, Meredith is the fine artist; in this case collage.

We read poetry, wrote poetry, discussed poetry, and produced poems with varying themes and inspiration. Collage evolved from the poetry, or inspired poetry. There was a myriad of ideas and paths to explore. 

Ekphrastic poetry describes a work of visual art—a painting, a dance, a musical piece. We were encouraged to explore. Rosemerry talked about the use of a variety of images and themes in one piece. We made lists. We wrote.

Meredith, a very fine painter, kept the themes of collage in the context of something like Haiku—the short direct embodiment of the visual. Her examples had depth, made statements, explored. 

Collage is the form of visual art using the French term coller, which translates literally to mean ‘to glue.’ Collage then is the art of taking pieces of paper, fabric, etc., to create an art work by gluing them down. From one piece we had written, we did a collage to illustrate the theme, From another artist’s collage we took an element and expanded upon it. 

One of the examples Meredith shared was to take an old deck of playing cards and create a collage a day. Of course, daily poems were also suggested. These, and other exercises, opened the doors and windows to a whole new type of journaling.

I bought a deck of playing cards. I  painted both sides with Gesso. At the little desk in my bedroom I lined up a shoebox with different papers folded and filed by color. I added baggies of string, seeds, grasses, bark, and feathers. My sketchbook is nearby. I use Elmer’s glue, a pair of small pincers, or tweezers, some cellophane, or plastic envelopes, to place under (and over) my work—to keep the glue where it belongs, and a variety of pens, pencils, and paints.

My goal was to do a collage a day.  1. FEATHERS AND LINES053. 3x5 inch collage