Be like Henri Matisse (an introduction to Collage)

One of the most famous collage artists was Henri Matisse.  He lived between 1868-1954.  In the last decade of his life (the 1940's) he very much changed his artistic style and turned to cut paper as his primary medium, using scissors as his tool.  To this day, Matisse cut-outs are quite famous.  He created them using gouache paint and was often inspired by the natural world.  He arranged these cut-outs into lively compositions and murals and the term "drawing with scissors" was coined in relation to his work.

Collage however is not for everyone.  Let me tell you a story.  I was chatting to my husband the other day about Collage and he mentions that he once did collage at School.  Now my husband is a farmer and not that artistic, so, I became very curious. He went on to tell me that he had double art classes every Wednesday morning at school and their project for one Summer term was to put together a Collage of their local town (which was Conwy in North Wales).  An amazing project for many.  However after a good start, my husband started to get a little bit bored and frustrated at the time it took to complete the picture . As time went on the peices got bigger and bigger, until one piece (about half the size of the front of the Daily Telegraph) caught the attention of the Art teacher - And that very much ended the artistic aspirations my husband never had...
 
So, if you're an impatient type this workshop may not be your cup of tea - although I would say that it is the kind of technique in which you can easily zone out and really enjoy.  And if you don't try, you'll never become Henri Matisse!!