House on fire

'House on fire' collage by Paul Vallance

Press to call lift

'Press to call lift' photomontage by Paul Vallance

Henge

'Henge' collage by Paul Vallance

Standing stone

'Standing stone' collage by Paul Vallance

Snake and paints

My Windsor & Newton Acrylic Paints with found object.

At sea

'At sea' acrylic painting.

and here's a slightly different version where I've increased the colour saturation using i-Photos edit function. Its a pity the original doesn't look as good.

This was painted on an old scrap of rather absorbent grey cardboard. I seem to be attracted to blues and greens at the moment. I planned to paint a figure of Poseidon, or a buoy, or a message in a bottle somewhere in this picture, but wasn't sure I had the skill to do that, so just pretend they're all there, or take your pick!  Painting this made me realise how hard it is to paint wavy and wiggly lines when you're not completely relaxed, but it's still very enjoyable just making a line.

Tree -my first painting with acrylic paints.

My tree painting. Its a bit crude. I found an old frame for it and this seems to help it a bit.

A friend bought me a lovely set of Windsor & Newton acrylic paints and paint brushes for Christmas. The tubes of paint are lovely little objects in themselves and I love their poetic names-raw umber, titanium white, yellow ochre, mars black. I must admit I found them a little intimidating as I knew opening them and squeezing out the paint would bring me up against my perfectionist tendencies.
This morning I had a go at painting. I began with the background then thought I'd do a self-portait. Big mistake, I painted over that and then had the idea of painting a tree and here's the result. I enjoyed the process the faster I worked -mixing and applying the paint quickly without too much deliberation.

Night and Day

Boxed collage using illustrations from 'The Magic Tree' by Gerald McDermott (1941-2012). Fellow of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, filmmaker, illustrator and story teller, McDermott's work often features archetypal trickster figures.

Originally published in the seventies I found my copy in a charity shop.  A library book from Downham Market Norfolk, the date stamps reveal the book was borrowed 56 times between 1975 and 1986 when presumably it was retired or perhaps borrowed but never returned to avoid mounting fines. The 'printers tray' box frame is from one my favourite stores - the fabulously cheap 'n' cheerful Nordic 'Tiger'.

The Magic Tree is a traditional Congolese folk tale about twin boys. I find the moral of the story a bit confusing though there's a clear message/warning about forgetting who loves you. The illustrations are beautiful-like an Afro version of Matisses's paper cuts. No wonder this book has recently been reissued it's delightful. Themes include; night and day, leaving home, 'monsters' (a crocodile), a night voyage (in a canoe) and the masculine and feminine. Individuation?

Coming home from the mill (the global village).

'Coming home from the mill' For this collage I've added some figures from 'Nylon street View: the new Nylon book of global style'. The men were photographed in various world cities but look quite at ease in Lowry's Salford. The framed print was from Barnardo's shop in Wanstead and cost six quid.

The 'God of Dance'

Collage by Paul Vallance. Nijinsky as the 'golden slave' in the Ballet Russe production of Scheherazade, relocated to Drummond Castle, Perthshire, Scotland.

Psychopomp.

Collage by Paul Vallance Inspiration has left me, scalpel and scissors are back in the drawer. I think it'll be some time before I make any more collages. Meanwhile here's an image of the ferryman/ferrywoman I made earlier. 

Seclusion

Collage by Paul Vallance. 'St Augustine in his cell writing sacred texts by Botticelli. Background shows scanning electron microscopic image of a nucleolus, the specialised part of a cells nucleous that assembles particles containing ribonucleic acid (RNA).' Collage

Veils and seals

'Veils and seals' collage by Paul Vallance.
"Ask not of things to shed their veil. 
Unveil yourselves and things will be unveiled. 
Nor ask of things to break their seals. 
Unseal your selves and all will be unsealed."
The Book of Mirdad.

Reservoir

'Reservoir' collage by Paul Vallance

Overlap

DLG at Greenwich, photo by PV. Background: Scanning Electron Microscope image of overlapping nerve fibres. Collage by Paul Vallance.