Still Life | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

May 25, 2017May 23, 2017

Wine Glasses

I made this mixed media piece back when I was in college. The assignment was to pick an object, and then repeat it multiple times while treating each version of the image in a different way. Since I was studying painting at the time, whenever I had assignments in my other studio art classes, I turned them into opportunities to work with collage. Here I used magazine cutouts, as well as fabric, thread, acrylic paint, color pencil, graphite, and oil pastel. I also remember having a lot of fun trying to come up with different ways of tackling the same subject. This might actually be a good exercise for me to explore sometime this year, just to kickstart and inspire my art-making process.

May 4, 2017

Reflective Still Life Study 1

This was the first painting that I did in a series of still life paintings back in college. I call them the “Reflective Still Life Studies,” since I played around with painting glass and the reflection of objects in mirrors. Since this was the first painting in the series, you can see that the strokes seem a little forced and uncertain. I was just getting the hang of mixing colors and painting still life, so it wasn’t until I got to the second painting in the series when the compositions flowed together a little better.

March 9, 2017March 29, 2017

Reflective Still Life Study 2

I studied painting in college, and this is a piece that I made that was part of an oil painting series that depicted reflective surfaces. I remember really enjoying the process when I was working on this particular painting, it sort of fell together, while my other reflective paintings were more of a struggle.

I feel like still life was something I always dreaded in school. The compositions in real life that we worked from seemed boring to me – not as exciting as figurative work. The struggle was finding inspiration in old objects that were fished out of the teacher’s closet and strewn about in such a way to create interest for the entire class. Nowadays when I tackle still life, I like to work from reference photos of interesting food and drinks that I’ve seen (or eaten) on various trips.

February 20, 2017June 19, 2024

The Magic of Memories

This is a commission that I completed for an author who lives in California. She wrote a story about a collage artist in the DC area, and she thought it was only fitting to hire me to make a collage inspired by a description from the book. This piece was inspired by a passage that described a work of art created by the fictional artist – a box of memories with light swirling from it. I definitely had a lot of fun creating this piece, especially since it was a little different from what I normally make.

February 16, 2017March 29, 2017

Always

This is the first oil painting I ever did, and I made it back in high school. I really enjoyed painting reflections back then, and a couple of years later when I went to school for painting, I created a series of paintings that focused on still life and glass reflections.

May 11, 2016June 19, 2024

Sprinkles and Cupcakes Make Everything Better

I usually like to tackle animal collages, so I decided to change things up a bit and work on another still life piece. It’s been a while since I’ve made a new work of art – sometimes life can get pretty hectic. This year is proving to be a busy one for me, with more traveling and a lot of classes that I’m taking at night. What can I say? I have a lot of interests that keep my days pretty busy.

Anyway, I think I’ll work on cranking out another still life collage next.

April 3, 2016June 19, 2024

Coffee Break

Coffee is definitely a popular subject matter for me. What can I say? Coffee fuels me and inspires me.

I’ve been devoting so much time and energy to animal collages these days, that I decided to take a break and focus a little bit more on other subjects. There may be a few more still life pieces in my future. We shall see…

May 17, 2015June 5, 2024

Another Cup of Coffee, Please

I just had to go and collage another cup of coffee. What can I say? It’s difficult for me not to make artwork of one of my favorite drinks of all time.

February 22, 2015June 17, 2024

Coffee Time

I was inspired by the cold weather we’ve been getting lately to make a collage of my favorite beverage – coffee. It’s a subject I don’t mind revisiting over and over again. I think I might try to explore collaging some of my favorite foods as well.

August 25, 2014June 17, 2024

Deli Sandwich

Here’s the latest collage in my food still life series. This piece was inspired by a deli in Chicago. I decided to make this one a little more on the abstract side. We shall see how the next pieces turn out… I’m planning to tackle a couple more food collages before turning back to some animal and landscape pieces.