The Art of Collage: Exploring Techniques, Inspiration, and Personal Expressions
This blog is all about my personal journey with collage. It has become a playful and spontaneous medium for me, closely tied to my love of found images and photography.
Yuval Etgar sums it up perfectly: "Collage is a way of thinking, of juxtaposing elements to create new meanings. It’s about finding connections between disparate pieces and letting the viewer’s imagination fill in the gaps."
In 2018, I took a mixed media artist’s workshop with teachers Rosenclaire in Italy. We did exercises like photomontage, where we placed a colourful animal or object into a setting—one interior and one exterior—while being mindful of vanishing points and light sources. This is where Pet Cemetery was born. It started as a collage, then a print, and eventually a painting. Collage lets me use found images to create new narratives, going beyond simply using photos as references.
Finding the Materials
Half the fun of collage is collecting the images. Road trips now include bookshops and thrift stores (a treasure trove for source material). Just don’t mention that you’re planning to cut up the books! Some booksellers are a bit precious about that (understandably so) 😉. Thankfully, I also have generous friends who happily keep me stocked with a steady supply.
Creating Connections
The magic of collage is in mixing and matching images in a spontaneous way—it’s a bit like playing Snap. Like memory, it connects things that seem unrelated, creating something strange yet exciting. The connections aren’t always obvious, but when you look back, they reveal stories tied to your own life. As Anais Nin said: "We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are."
And then there’s the simplicity of materials—all you need is a glue stick, scissors, and found images..
Orchids, Athletes, and Subtle Interactions
My recent collage series explores orchids and athletes’ upper bodies. Their forms are surprisingly similar, creating a subtle dialogue between the two. Through cutting and gluing, I aim to capture those quiet, often unnoticed exchanges.
Collage Inspirations
Here are some of my favourite collage artists who inspire me:
Vincent La Scala
His abstract works feel like small worlds, full of balance and spaciousness. He uses old vintage papers, cleverly incorporating snippets of tears and watermarks, nodding to their history and patina. His work is subtle, full of intrigue, yet calming.
Instagram: Vincent La Scala
Leigh Wells
I love her use of flowers, the black-and-white abstraction, and the play with negative space.
Instagram: Leigh Wells
Sitaara Stodel
She captures the domesticity of suburbia, creating intimate interior worlds from old family photographs. Her work often features soft pink or blue backgrounds and delicate gold thread stitching.
Instagram: Sitaara Stodel
Katrien de Blauwer
She calls herself a “photographer without a camera.” Her work focuses on the female form, rarely showing faces, adding a sense of anonymity. Her art is a mix of melancholy, humour, and sensuality.
Instagram: Katrien de Blauwer
A Glimpse into the World of Collage
Collage has quietly evolved over time, blending materials and ideas to create something entirely new. From its humble beginnings to becoming a celebrated art form, collage has always been about layering stories, emotions, and textures in a way that speaks to both the artist and the viewer.
Cubism (1907-1917):
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were the first to explore collage, using newspapers, wallpaper, and fabric in their paintings, breaking away from conventional perspectives.
Dadaism (1916-1922):
Artists like Hannah Höch and Kurt Schwitters used collage to challenge norms, often critiquing society with found objects and photographs.
Surrealism (1920s-1930s):
Max Ernst and other Surrealists used collage to tap into the subconscious, creating dreamlike and fantastical works.
Contemporary Collage:
Today, collage is a versatile medium seen in styles from Pop Art to postmodernism, often blending culture, technology, and personal expression.
Collage as a Starting Point
While collage can stand alone as an artwork, I’ve started using it as a springboard for other mediums. In Italy, it led me to new paintings. I’ve started layering oil pastels over my collages, and it’s now influencing my oil paintings too. This transition between mediums is unfolding in interesting ways. Keep an eye out for more updates on this process in the coming weeks.
Final Reflections
Each collage creates new connections and tells different stories. It’s exciting because you never know what you’ll create. It’s an ongoing process that keeps revealing new possibilities.
Feel free to browse my latest collages in the shop or share your thoughts on your favourite collage techniques.