Anna Carll | Painting With Paper: An Exploration of Composition Within the Art of Collage

Workshop: Painting with Paper: An Exploration of Composition Within the Art of Collage

Dates: May 22-24, 2026

Days: 3

Time: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM with lunch break

Level: All - Attendees need to be familiar with wet media, as acrylic gel or matte medium will be the “glue” used for construction of the collages.

Size: 14

Tuition: $899

Explore a new way to look at and build the art of collage with an eye towards using color, shape, pattern and composition as a means to construct an image that is out of the ordinary mindset of this time-honored medium. We will explore the basics of composition through the Architecture of Space principles focusing on foundation shapes that anchor the composition to the spatial plane.*

*SPATIAL PLANE: 1. : relating to, occupying, or having the character of space. 2. : of, relating to, or involved in the perception of relationships (as of objects) in space.

Day one: The morning will start with a short introduction & art talk/slideshow by the instructor, and a talk on establishing a color, shape and pattern vocabulary for your area of interest. We will also engage in a group speed collage exercise that will loosen you up for the composition explorations of the afternoon. That afternoon will start with a short demo based on foundation shapes that will help you decide on your basic composition for the remainder of the workshop—then we will begin building the background elements of our collages and paint/sand the entire background.

Day two: Will start with a short demo and participants will continue to build their main collage and focus more on a single heroic area/focal point of the composition, building density with a lot of detail.

Day three: We will bring the collage together by editing the image using house paint with an eye towards making new compositional connections—there will be another short demonstration by the instructor. The class will end early to allow for a critique of work produced via zoom. This class will offer participants an abstracted view of realism or total abstraction if that is preferred—you’ll get to choose which way you want to go. Attention will be paid to building composition and detail within the image.

Supply list:

• 12 x 18 inch, 20 inch square or 20 x 24 inch heavy paper or panel—this can be wood, Masonite or aluminum panel—if you want to work on multiple panels, that’s fine—I would recommend smaller if you want to do a diptych or triptych (Note: if you have a scrap panel that you want to use for the workshop, that’s fine. You may want to do some prep work on it: sand and prime).

• Golden or Liquitex heavy gel MATTE—minimum of 16 ounces

• Golden or Liquitex MATTE medium—minimum of 8 fluid ounces

• Quart of house paint—this will be used to edit the collage image so I would recommend a natural white or pale color unless you want to have a dark color background for your collage. I recommend: Clark + Kensington (latex satin @ Ace Hardware or whatever house paint is available to you where you live) or Behr Marquee (acrylic satin @ Home Depot if its available)

• A selection of acrylic paint colors both heavy body and fluid acrylics

• A couple of brushes—1/2” and 1” for larger paper sections

• A large, clean yogurt container or small bucket for your brushes

• A cotton rag or small towel

• Paint clothes or apron

• A selection of medium value and light value papers to build the foundation shapes

• A selection of colorful papers in many different sizes and shapes for the speed collage exercise

• A selection of postcards, old calendars, wallpaper samples, maps, periodicals, posters, fine art or handmade papers or any type of paper material you wish to cut-up and use—I do not recommend magazine material—it’s too difficult to use

• Sharp scissors (participants can use an X-acto knife for fine detail)

• Sandpaper block—NOTE: Do NOT use a “soft” sanding block that is foam based.

• Get a variety of grades—course to fine of good quality sandpaper sheets and cut a 2.25” chunk of a scrap 2x4 or another piece of wood that will fit in your hand—we will be sanding VIGOROUSLY.

• Cheap sketch paper for building a composition, to use for editing shapes and practice with the gel medium

• An open mind

Downloadable

Questions about supplies?

Contact Anna directly at annacarll.com

Website

www.annacarll.com

American abstract artist using collage and paint to create colorful, complex and unique art.

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