Exploring textures, colours, and shapes with collage

As part of my colour research and colour mixing prep, I had painted brown packing paper sheets. I painted quite big pieces because the artwork I’m creating is 100cm x 120cm and a small patch of colour can look very different to a big one.

I had planned to paint the artwork using acrylics and translucent inks – purely because I’ve been loving that combination over the past year. But as I was looking at the brown papers that I’d painted, I was falling in love with them. And I noticed that they have some wonderful textures that look and feel a lot like some of the textures of New South Wales…

• the stripes, patches, peeling and knots of eucalyptus bark
• the matt, dry, opaqueness of the dry ground, dust, and dried, cracked mud and rocks
• the textures of aerial images of the area

I just wanted to touch them and look at them and place the different colours and textures alongside each other. At first I began arranging them across the canvas, thinking I was just exploring colours, shapes, and composition for when I paint it.

Then I found myself sticking some down and I thought it would become a mixed media piece. It might still. But for now, it’s developing as a collage.

Sensory delight is essential to me, so I’m really excited with the way this is developing as an abstract landscape that’s feeling really resonant of the colours and textures and sensory experience of the land.

I love the places where the brown paper shows through and the places where I peeled back paper to let an air bubble out. And I love how the patchwork of shapes reminds me of peeling eucalyptus bark, aerial photos of the area, and the shapes in cracked mud.

I don’t know if this will become the final commissioned artwork. For now I’m just trusting and following the sensory delight!