“Paper Wings” new bird art in collage and acrylic

As I continue to paint with collage and incorporate garden birds into my work after several years of feathered absence, a familiar bird has made its way back to the easel.

Its the starling, and in my last blog I shared my thoughts on the inspiration of starlings and some of the varied starling paintings I’ve done over the years. The latest starling painting was inspired by a previous work in soft pastels, a walk around a boggy, misty lake in a tiny Welsh village, and my sense of connection with this bird and the landscape I’ve watched it from.

Using the pastel painting and an earlier thumbnail sketch as my starting point, I could see exactly how this could translate into a collage landscape instead. The rich colours of the pastel could be recreated using Derwent Inktense - a favourite of mine with collage. The subtle hues of the tree that the starling climbs would provide the texture, and the bird itself a chance to add some vibrant touches of cobalt, teal and purple to really make it pop.

The original sketches and finished pastel painting

The first step was creating a base layer, as the pastel painting has already done the bulk of the work for me in terms of composition, mood, colour choices etc. So I scribbled a few sketched lines in charcoal and added a wash of yellow.

Then, my favourite part of the process. The one where I don’t need to think or even concentrate. I put on some music, grabbed a selection of collage papers and scraps and simply placed them down on the paper. It was important not to really think about a horizon or a cloud or a bush at this point, but just build a surface with plenty of interesting texture and some pops of colour.

First layers of collage

As you’ll see, some of this first layer makes little sense. Just look at the bottom right corner where there’s a strip of pink paper with white polka dots - what does that have to do with a landscape?

All in good time…

Next, I added some touches of ink and acrylic paint to bring out some more colour and contrast, suggesting forms very loosely in horizontal marks for the foreground and vertical marks for the distant trees.

After the first layer and first paint application, my painting starts to slow down. This part of painting with collage is about “editing”. I need to look at the overall feel and flow of the piece, and decide if there are any bits which need to be pushed back or even removed. What do I want to start emphasizing in the next step? I might add a single piece of paper. Drop another dark mark into the horizon, or add and blend some white in to push something back into the distance.

I decided to print out the original starling from the pastel painting. Initially just to use as a placeholder for me to build the rest of the painting around. But I really liked how it looks, so decided to incorporate it as a piece of collage instead.

I added some Inktense green and scratched back through the paint to suggest grasses.

Then I started to clarify and soften the sky, strengthening the blue line and referring back to my original pastel drawing. There’s very little I wanted to change from the original, so this whole painting has felt quite easy so far!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqX8WarCRsU

Here’s the finished starling painting.

“Paper Wings” 30 x 40cm, €200

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