Old Town Townhouses

Old Town Townhouses by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Old Town Townhouses.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″
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When I was working as a visiting artist this past summer, I did quite a bit of walking. It was about an hour walk to the local art center from my house – and I tried to make this trek twice a day (to the center and then back home) so I could get some exercise. So often I get cooped up inside making artwork or sitting in front of a computer. I felt it was necessary to force myself to get out and move about a little more.

On my walks, I’d take pictures from time to time to file away and use for future works of art. This collage was based on a series of photographs I took of the bright, colorful townhouses you can find on King Street in Old Town, Alexandria.

I don’t typically do landscape and cityscapes (you’ve probably realized I’m more of a sucker for animal and portraiture pieces), however this was a collage I made for an upcoming show I’m having at NIH – it features landscape and cityscape collages. I’ll post more pieces from the series later on.

Brown Bear

Brown Bear by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Brown Bear.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″
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I used a lot of texture for this one – I’m realizing that some days I’m in the mood to work with a lot of texture/fragments of images, while other times I like to focus on plain colors. This piece was inspired by a trip to the Natural History museum – I took a picture of one of their bears on display in an animal exhibit to use as a guide for the general outline of this bear. The background and shadowing were sort of made up as I went along.

I hope everyone is enjoying the first few days of September. I’ve been working away as usual, and I’m excited about a couple of commission pieces I have in my schedule. I’ve been working on a lot of animal and landscape collages, however both of my commissions are portraits. I sort of put portraiture aside after having two solo exhibits back to back this summer that showcased different work for each show. I was a little burnt out on using figures for my subjects, however now I’m rested up and ready to dive back in.

At the moment, my children’s book and animation work is put on hold until I finish up my work with clients.

Purple Meerkat

Purple Meerkat by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Purple Meerkat.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″ Order a print

This guy is my favorite piece from the body of work I completed this summer when I worked as a visiting artist at a local art center. I not only had a lot of fun putting together the meerkat, but I enjoyed playing with the textures in the background as well. And yes, this is another piece inspired by a trip to the DC zoo. I have to admit, those meerkats at the zoo are possibly my favorite animals there – they are just too cute!

At the moment I’m working away on a commissioned portrait, putting together a proposal for a couple of projects for a craft book, and continuing to write my first children’s book. Also, I’d like to thank Ann for featuring my work in her blog All Things Paper, and Beth for featuring me in her Featured Artist Tuesday post.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great month of August!