Megan Coyle | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

July 15, 2017June 5, 2024

Mandarin Duck

Birds are always a fun subject to tackle since there are so many different species out there. This particular collage is my first attempt at tackling a mandarin duck in collage form. I love how colorful these ducks are, and I definitely enjoyed piecing this together from so many pieces of bright magazine pages.

If you’ve been following my work lately, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve shared quite a few animal collages. I’m thinking I should probably change gears in a bit and try to tackle portraits or still life sometime soon. We shall see though…animals are always a favorite subject for me, although it is good to break out of your comfort zone every once in a while.

July 6, 2017

Still Life Charcoal Drawing from College

I made this charcoal drawing during my sophomore year of college. At the time, I was taking quite a few studio art classes, and often stayed at the studio pretty late working on artwork. Still life has always been a subject matter I’ve struggled with, simply because I haven’t found it to be all that exciting (I was more interested in figurative artwork or animal portraits). I thought this particular still life was a little unusual since it involved an animal skull, instead of the usual bowl of fruit or empty kitchenware. I also enjoyed working with charcoal since it can get pretty messy, which keeps things interesting.

June 27, 2017

Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing at SFMOMA

The other month I visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing 273 was one of my favorite installations there.

The installation is made from graphite and crayon on seven walls. I’m drawn to geometric shapes when it comes to works of art that I admire, and I liked the simplistic use of line and color. It creates an overall clean and minimalist look.

I drew some inspiration from LeWitt’s use of line. Perhaps I’ll start playing with bolder lines in my own work.

June 20, 2017

Collages from Durham, New Hampshire

Coyle inspired collage made by a student from New Hampshire — Collage by Hannah

Kim’s 8th grade class from Durham, New Hampshire, recently created their own collages. It was great getting to see what they came up with while using my “painting with paper” technique.

Their work is pretty impressive. Back when I was in 8th grade, I remember the collages I used to make were more like what you traditionally think of when you think of collage. So seeing what these students made, while only using paper for the shadows and highlights for each composition, was wonderful.

I enjoyed seeing how each student used a mixture of solid colors and textures.

Some pieces, like the one above, used a lot of variation in the shapes cut from the paper.

While other student artwork, like the two pieces above, had more rectangular magazine strips.

It was absolutely wonderful seeing images of what the students made. I hope these young artists continue to make art.

June 15, 2017

Heels Collage

Although I started making collages back when I was in high school, I didn’t start getting serious about the medium until I was in college. “Heels” is a collage that I made in my free time outside of the painting classes I had to take as a painting major.

For this piece, I played around with using different patterns and textures, while still using some solid bits of color for the floor and wall in the background. Working on collages like this one is exactly what kept me interested in pursuing collage as a medium for my artwork.

June 14, 2017June 5, 2024

Sea Explorer

When I was growing up, turtles were one of my favorite animals. I remember I had a number of turtle figurines, and even had a turtle jewelry box. But of all the different species of turtle out there, my absolute favorite was the sea turtle. I thought they looked like such elegant creatures.

The other day I decided to piece together my first sea turtle collage, and as I was working on it, I remembered all those years that I was in awe of this creature. I think I should definitely tackle this subject matter again in the future.

June 10, 2017

Tomás Saraceno’s Stillness in Motion – Cloud Cities at SFMOMA

The other month I had a chance to visit San Francisco, and spent a few hours wandering around the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. One of my favorite pieces was the installation work by Tomás Saraceno – Stillness in Motion – Cloud Cities.

I absolutely loved the simple, geometric shapes that took over the room. I also liked how he wove mirrors into these shapes, which continued to play with your perception of the depth of the room.

Here you can get a sense of how large the webs are in relation to the museum patrons.

It was wonderful learning about a new artist, and experiencing his work in-person. It was an inspiring visit that helped jump-start my creativity.

June 8, 2017June 18, 2024

Mark and Sophie

“Mark and Sophie” is a portrait that I was commissioned to make for the wife of a former boss of mine – she wanted to give it to her husband for their anniversary.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a portrait collage, so this piece was definitely a bit of a struggle for me. Usually my collages are relatively flat when you look at the surface – I don’t usually use that many layers. However, for this piece, there are definitely sections where I built up the layers more so than others.

Here’s the sketch that this piece started off with:

You can see that it looks a lot different than the final piece. Sometimes my sketches don’t exactly look the way I want the final product to look, but they do give me an idea of how to block out the entire composition.

Anyway, although this piece was a struggle, eventually all the pieces fell into place. Just goes to show that if you keep at it with something, eventually you can accomplish your goal.

June 3, 2017

Collages from London, England

Jennifer, a teacher from London, England, sent along images of her students’ artwork. The students are Year 1 at a London Primary School, and are five and six years old.

The class learned about my artwork and then made their own collages.

It was a lot of fun seeing what the kids made. And it’s wonderful to hear that at such a young age, they are learning all about how to paint with paper.

May 31, 2017June 1, 2017

Bosty goes to SFMOMA

While visiting San Francisco, Bosty decided to check out the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

He especially wanted to see the Matisse and Diebenkorn exhibit.

So right after he bought his ticket, he went straight to the Matisse and Diebenkorn show. Wow, just look at those bright, beautiful colors that Diebenkorn used!

Next, Bosty wandered around the permanent collection for hours. He loved seeing some of Chuck Close’s intricate portraits.

And Ellsworth Kelly’s bright, abstract paintings were another favorite, especially the painting that looked like painted pixels.

He also liked Ellsworth Kelly’s large, abstract paintings on panel.

Bosty enjoyed seeing all the geometric minimalist work. He saw several pieces by Frank Stella that he just had to have his picture taken by.

He was also surprised to see that Gerhardt Richter had made some colorful, minimalist paintings.

And Bosty liked seeing some of Gerhard Richter’s work in his usual style.

There were some pretty interesting sculptures in the museum too, like Antony Gormley’s “Quantum Cloud VIII,” which conveyed the body as a swarm of chaotic energy, and Richard Deacon’s “For Those Who Have Eyes,” which was a bulb shape based on the anatomy of the human eyeball.

Gunther Forg’s colorful, minimalist pieces were also fun to study for a while.

Bosty really liked Roy Lichenstein’s comic book style art, since it was like looking at life-sized comics.

Bosty ended his visit by walking by Sol LeWitt’s installation art. The simplistic lines and shapes were pretty amazing to see. Overall, Bosty’s museum visit inspired him to want to visit more museums when he heads home to DC.