The Feather Featured Art series is chosen by art teacher Vickey Belmont from her classes and/or independent art students. Belmont picks the best work during current units and encourages students to participate in these occasional posts. Other students are encouraged to submit art pieces as well. Please contact the editors directly or via adviser Kori James for submissions.

Description by art teacher Vickey Belmont:

What is painting with paper?  It is a form of collage, but not a collage where visual elements are combined to create a new image that conveys a message or idea. This type of collage utilizes the colors found in ephemeral paper (temporary)  that are cut into very small pieces to fill in the image you are creating, giving the illusion of paintbrush strokes.

Artist, Megan Coyle, an artist, and illustrator, uses this technique to create beautiful art pieces; visit her website Megan Coyle to view her work. Her artwork is using scraps of paper that resemble brush strokes on a painting.

Collage derives from the French word “coller ” meaning “to glue”, which is the primary means of combining images in collage art. There are many different subcategories with collage; photomontage, fabric collage, and decoupage. This form of art became popular when artist Pablo Picasso started gluing fabric, paper and sometimes, objects to his paintings.

Cubismsite has information on Pablo Picasso  and his use of elements to collage his painting: ​​A glass and a bottle of Suze. He became the creator of the first integral collage composition, the father of modern collage. 

If you’re a beginning artist or want to try your hand at collage, you can find a list of collage ideas thecuriouslycreative.com the ultimate list of collage ideas. Some of the ideas are color-related, photo rearrangement, shape, and typography to name a few. You only need magazines, newspapers, photographs, glue, and scissors to get started. 

Sophomore Ruby Baker is in Art II and has mastered this technique. This is a new assignment that I introduced this year. I wanted my advanced art students challenged to create an art piece using this style. Ruby’s project exceeded my expectations; her picture is beautiful and is fully created with stripes of paper she cut to look like brush strokes.

The most difficult part of this project is finding the right color combination. Then take your time to arrange them on your paper to resemble the image you wanted. Using a color wheel can take some of the guesswork out of color schemes you want to create.

Looking at her picture, it may take a moment to fully see all that she has created. It takes on an abstract quality causing the viewer to look at it closer. She did an amazing job.

Sophomore Ruby Baker

To make this art I used magazines, tissue paper, glue, and scissors. I cut the various colors of paper into small pieces meant to imitate brush strokes. I glued the pieces onto the paper to make the background and subject. 

Inspiration can come from many places but I used a couple of different photos that I found online. 

I believe that this is a project that anybody can do. Even if it is a little more advanced, it is always good to challenge yourself. The most difficult part of the project was trusting the process. I find that to be true with a lot of the art that I make. 

It will be fun to see the other art I can make with the skills that I learned during this project. 

I really enjoyed this project. It was fun to watch the image come together throughout the process. I don’t think that I would have done this project if I was not in art class and It is always fun to try something new.

This is the first featured artist of the new school year. For the last art post, read Feature Art No. 6, 2020-21: Monochromatic landscapes. For more Feather articles, read Celebrate the 36th FC homecoming: We’re back in 2021! and 21-22 Homecoming day No.4 wrap up.