This was inspired by the two giant pandas at the National Zoo. It seems like every time I pay a visit, they’re always busy chowing down. I suppose it takes a lot of work to maintain their panda figures.
Yesterday I had my artist talk at the Center for the Arts, Caton Merchant Family Gallery for the solo show “A Palette of Paper.” I thought I’d share a few photos from the event.
The gallery is inside an old candy factory, so it has a really unique look and feel.
At the front of the art center, there’s information about the old candy factory that used to be in business there. Here’s an image that shows the different shapes of the candy.
Right when you walk inside the building, the first thing you see are the glass doors to the art gallery. Here I am giving my artist talk.
And here’s another angle of the talk. It’s a pretty spacious gallery – and definitely one of the best venues where I’ve shown my work.
Anyway, thanks to all the folks who were able to make it out to the Manassas talk! It was a fun day!
“Cuddling Meerkats.” Collage on paper. 18″x24″
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Here’s the finished collage – I decided to make the background dark to make the meerkats look a little more dramatic or at least stand out more. They turned into quite the characters – perhaps my next children’s book should star a meerkat…
Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely week. It’s beginning to finally feel like winter around here.
My solo show, “A Palette of Paper,” went up yesterday. I didn’t have an opening reception for this one, but I’m going to have an artist talk a week from this Saturday. It’s been a while since my last talk – we shall see how this one goes!
The gallery director was kind enough to send a few pictures of the installed exhibit (I have yet to see it in person!). The space is gorgeous – I love the wood floors and the lighting, and it’s wonderful how the artist’s name gets printed across the gallery’s glass door.
The folks at the gallery installed the show for me, which makes things a lot easier on my end. Sometimes it can take hours and hours for me to install a show. You’d think at this point I’d be a pro at it – but alas, no. Every show seems to have a different way of displaying my work – nail in the wall, hooks that attach to the molding at the top of the walls, etc.
Anyway, I like what they did with the place. And I’m looking forward to seeing everything when I stop by for my artist talk.
February 8th – March 22nd, 2012
Center for the Arts, Caton Merchant Family Gallery; Manassas, Virginia
Map and Gallery Info
Artist talk: Saturday, February 18th at 1:00p.m.
This solo exhibition of Coyle’s artwork featured her portrait, animal, landscape, and cityscape collages. “A Palette of Paper – Collages by Megan Coyle” focused on Coyle’s unique technique of creating collages that strongly resemble paintings, while using magazine strips or cut paper for her color palette.
The show included several new collages as well as older works. A total of around thirty collages were on display, showcasing Coyle’s interpretation of a variety of familiar subjects.
If you can imagine how scissors plying through everyday magazines can give an outcome of surprising and masterful art, then you might imagine the incredible collages of Megan Coyle. Working in classic art genres, Megan breaks down her images piece by piece, evolving them from bits of magazines into whole new, amazing compositions.
So my upcoming solo show is just around the corner! “A Palette of Paper” will be on display at the Center for the Arts, Caton Merchant Family Gallery in Manassas, VA. The art gallery is beautiful – and the art center is in a building that used to be an old candy factory. I can’t wait to take pictures of the installed exhibit and share them. There will be around thirty collages that will include portraits, animals, cityscapes, and landscapes.
I’m delivering the work to the gallery in the next couple of days. The show will go up on February 8th and will run until March 22nd. I’m giving an artist talk on February 18th.
Here’s the gallery’s description of the show:
If you can imagine how scissors plying through everyday magazines can give an outcome of surprising and masterful art, then you might imagine the incredible collages of Megan Coyle. Working in classic art genres, Megan breaks down her images piece by piece, evolving them from bits of magazines into whole new, amazing compositions.
And here’s the finished red panda cub. These little critters are so cute in person!
I’m currently working on several large animal collages – around 18″x24″ – that will be used in an upcoming exhibition. I’m also doing a bit of preliminary work for a 2d animation that I hope to put together at some point. Busy, busy!
Here’s the finished orangutan. I’m currently working on several animal collages since I’ll have two overlapping solo shows this summer. The shows will only feature my animal collage work, thus I’ll need quite a bit of work available to display. So I’m off – gotta keep busy!
Above and below are the finished portraits I did of Fluffy the Chinchilla. They were my first ever chinchilla portraits, and I had a lot of fun making them. The client had some great Fluffy photos that I used as references for these.
And now I’m off to work on a red panda collage. Hope everyone has a great week!
2011 has been a wonderful year, filled with lots of firsts. I’m so grateful that I get to do what I love every day. So, to celebrate the upcoming year, here are 12 things that occurred this past year:
1) Finished illustrating and writing my first children’s book, Duck & Fish
2) Had my first radio interview
3) Was published for the first time in a national craft magazine – Somerset Studio
4) Had one of my collages published in a major newspaper for the first time – the Washington Post.
5) First time having my artwork appear on a celebrity’s website – Conan O’Brien
6) My artwork was accepted to be published in a book on Flower Art – which will be my first art book publication.
7) Created an education section for my website. Every year, students and teachers contact me to get more information about my artwork and process, so I figured I’d make things easier for them by creating an education section. I made sure to include process pictures, online lesson plans, and even matching games and puzzles for younger kids.
8) First time having my artwork make an appearance on TV – even though it was only shown briefly, and on a local news station in North Carolina, it still counts 🙂
9) Donated a work of art for the first time to a nonprofit called The Cure Starts Now.
10) Created my first series of text collages called “Art for Everyone.”
11) Ran my first day-long collage workshop
12) Lots of traveling for exhibits – solo show in Jasper, IN; group exhibit in Richmond, Kentucky; group exhibit in Lexington, NC
Overall, I’m grateful I had so many opportunities this year. I’m excited to see what 2012 will bring. And I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!