An Intro to Piecings... collage paintings

by Jo Reimer

Complements

I've been exploring another approach to collage, in a series I'm calling "Piecings". That's just what these collage paintings are... pieces of paper, most cut into geometric shapes and assembled, like when I made quilts from cut pieces of fabric. (This collage is 9 x 12".)

The focal strip was composed by creating a collage of long stripes which I then cut across the grain to create stripes of small rectangles.

Quilters often use a similar technique, especially within the Seminole Patchwork tradition where several stripes of colors are created and then cut apart and rearranged to create a pattern as shown here. The technique is thoroughly explained in The Complete Book of Seminole Patchwork, written by two friends of mine, Bev Rush and Lassie Wittman.

I seem most comfortable with pieces of color which I can move around to create a pleasing composition, rather than starting from scratch with a white substrate and an assortment of paints and brushes. Of course these papers started out white but first I had fun applying paint to paper, creating visual texture in a variety of ways. 

Another advantage of using some of the thinner papers I've prepared as well as washi, is that I can work with layering, like the blue area above which is a commercial thin "rice"paper layered over a paper which I painted with a grid, adding visual interest and complexity to a simple design.