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!
Here’s one of the holiday commissions I completed a couple months ago. My client wanted me to make a collage of her friend with his grandson. Since this piece wasn’t the smallest size I work in, it wasn’t as difficult to collage two figures on the 9″x12″ area. However, since 9″x12″ is still somewhat small, it was a bit of a challenge to get the likeness down properly for the grandson. I did have a bit of fun collaging all those colorful badges on the grandfather’s jacket.
I have a few more collages that I completed this year that I’ll post in the next couple of weeks. Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great December!
Bosty outdid himself this time – he made the trek all the way to Chapel Hill, NC to get himself a big stack of pancakes at his favorite cafe, Crook’s.
Then he met me for a stroll around town. He liked getting in the way whenever I took artsy pictures. Or any pictures, really.
After an hour, Bosty headed back to Crook’s for another helping of pancakes. I joined him for a cup of coffee. Brrr, it gets cold in Carolina in December.
Later he helped me uninstall my artwork in Lexington, NC from the “Out of the Wild” exhibit. The show had animal artwork and a taxidermy collection. So we decided to pose beside the animals.
Bosty wasn’t sure if he liked posing around the wildcats. They looked a little too big and fierce.
And he wasn’t convinced that I looked like I was running when I posed next to the galloping zebra. That Bosty is a tough one to please!
This weekend I did some gallery sitting for the Del Ray Artisans’ group exhibit, “It’s All About the Little Things.” I took a few pictures of my pieces that are up in the exhibit – above and below you can see images of my “Mr. Quackers,” “Scottish Terrier,” and “Ragamuffin” mini collages. The show featured small works of art by local artists.
The last day of the exhibit is actually today. And then the next show on my plate is a solo show in Manassas, Virginia in February.
December 9th – 18th, 2011
Nicholas Colasanto Center; Alexandria, Virginia
Map and Gallery Info
Opening Reception: Friday, December 9th from 7:00 – 10:00p.m.
Megan Coyle’s “Ragamuffin,” “Scottish Terrier,” and “Mr. Quackers” collages were on display in the Del Ray Artisans’ “It’s All About the Little Things” group exhibition. The show featured small works of art created by Del Ray Artisans members. The artwork on display was made from a wide range of materials – including photography, painting, and collage.
This was the second “small works” group exhibition that Coyle has been a part of. The last small works exhibition was held at the Art League Gallery in Old Town, Alexandria.
This is a piece that I completed a few days ago. My client wanted me to make an abstract landscape, somewhat similar to “The Artist from a Distance” collage. So now I just need to frame it and deliver it to its new home. I’m also beginning to do a bit of work on my first chinchilla portrait. Chinchillas sure are cute!
Anyway, I’m off to run a few errands. And I can’t believe it’s almost December and before long it will be 2012. Wow, it still blows my mind how fast a year can creep by.
This was one of the background pieces I created for the Birdy animation project. We ended up using a different collage for the project, but I thought I’d share this one as well. This piece is a bit abstract and uses a lot of rectangular strips of paper – which is what I usually use with scapes.
And here’s the completed collage of the smiling dog. Looking back at all the previous commission work I’ve done, it looks like dog portraits have been the most popular subject. When it comes to tackling pet portraits, I’ve found that it helps a lot if the subject is a happy-looking pup.
In other news, you can check out my article that was just published on Bourgeon Online – Art is a Story. I discuss the writing and illustrating process for Duck & Fish as well as the storytelling I do with my other art projects.