Florence Turnour's Blog

My Tree Overfloweth - Florence Turnour 2020 This project started with a palette of collage paper.  I chose a palette of colors, then I painted thin lightly waxed Sandwich Paper (deli paper) using these colors, using a gel plate and some of the stencils I designed. I created a large tree stencil, painted a black rectangle on watercolor paper, and sponged the tree onto the background. Then I started designing animals. I drew the animals in pencil, and used the photocopier to resize them until they fit nicely on the tree. I cut the drawings out, and traced the shapes onto my collage paper. For the small details like eyes and ears, I assembled the shapes before cutting them out. Here they are. I worked on this one type of animal at a time over months, between working on other things, and not having time to do any artwork. I posted the individual animals on Instagram as I went. I made a few animals that didn't go on the final tree. These rhinoceroses were too busy, and ended up in a s...

 I think this is my favorite of this series of landscapes, which I made at the end of 2019. Most of my projects begin with a palette.  I like the iPhone app iPalette, that lets you choose colors out of a photograph. This one started with a photograph I took at the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona del Mar. I used a gel plate to (somewhat) quickly create a set of papers with about 3 or four sheets of each colors. This paper is Southworth 32 lb cotton resume paper, which I got at an office supply store. I decided to texture this paper using texture plates made from found objects.  I applied the textures to the colored paper, using the same set of colors, to make a too large collection of collage papers. I used these for a set of landscapes.  I figured out that even though the colors of the buildings contrast with the hills, the size of the buildings and trees were too close to the size of the texture marks on the hills. I tried to correct this in the last two of t...

School started today, so I got behind in Creative Jumpstart while I prepped. Today I really enjoyed Nathalie Kalbach 's demonstration and snuck a little time on it. I love the result. Such a great idea, collaging a drawing. I love the line I get from the cut edge. Thanks, Nathalie! Thanks for looking!

Here is my project from  Creative Jumpstart , Day 9, inspired by Gwen Lafleur . This one is collaged gelli prints. Thanks for looking!

Today's Creative Jumpstart workshop was from Carolyn Dube . She suggested, among other things, that we use something from the garbage in our project. My first reaction was, "I have so many wonderful supplies. I don't want to use garbage!" Then I spotted my envelope collection (we pay most bills on-line, so the blank envelopes they give us to mail in go unused). Then I looked up and noticed my coffee can collection, and my gelato container collection, and I thought about that cabinet over the pantry where, if you open it too quickly, the oatmeal containers will fall out on your head and go rolling down the hall. I did use the envelope, but took pictures of the rest of it. Toss or keep? KEEP! I made the envelope into a pocket. And here's my hand, in case you think I neglected to use a medium that was not completely under my control. The acrylic ink I used for the background got on me. And my desk. And my pant leg. And a drawing on another page (wiped it of...

Day 30 Day 31 Day 32 Day 33 Day 34: Gant Gator Graduates (1) Day 35: Taking a look at a Gator photo Day 36: Gant Gator Graduates (2) Day 37 Day 38: Emergency backup drawing for a day I was too lazy to put on my paint pants Day 39 I made a couple of them into buttons. I'm going to have to think "round" when I design the next few. I definitely need buttons of these.  My projects from these 10 days were inspired by Ed Emberley's collage work on books he wrote with his daughter. Thanks for looking!