collage | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

November 30, 2010May 3, 2018

Claire

“Claire” is a commissioned portrait that I recently completed and shipped over to a woman in Texas. I have a couple of other commissions at the moment that are going to be given as Christmas gifts by my clients. Thus I’ll refrain from posting images of these projects until the holiday season has passed.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Mine was filled with family get-togethers and lots and lots of food. I didn’t bother with shopping on Black Friday – I think I’ll finish my shopping online so I can avoid the crowds. Anyway, I’m off to try and finish another commission – I’ve decided I won’t work too much on my personal projects until these commission are complete, however I’m anxious to get back to my children’s book illustrations.

Have a great end of November!

November 18, 2010February 10, 2018

Karim’s Father

And here’s the finished piece. You’ll notice that it looks much different than the last progress picture. My client supplied me with a low res photograph taken with a cell phone camera. After a bit of dialogue back and forth between us, the portrait began to change bit by bit as I merged elements from other photographs that the client sent. Eventually, this was the result.

Anyway, I’m off to continue working on another commission – when it rains, it does indeed pour. And sometimes I wish I could clone myself so I could work on all the projects that are on my “to do” list.

October 20, 2010June 16, 2024

Kitty in the City

Had another go at a cat collage. This one sort of fell together, which is always a good sign. I enjoyed putting together this little guy and adding the fragments of images of buildings in the background.

Recently I started watching quite a few animation video tutorials. I’m itching to get started on an animated collage. However, you can’t always do everything at once, so I’ll have to be patient and wait until I have some more free time to devote to a new project. For now, I’m off to work on a commission and a couple of illustrations.

September 28, 2010June 15, 2024

Maine Coon

Another collage from my cat series. Pretty soon I should get started on making more animal collages. Or perhaps I’ll do a series of small coffee cups? We shall see…

This past Saturday I uninstalled “The Animal Kingdom” exhibit at Goodwin House. Time sure does fly – it feels like just the other day I was hauling nearly forty collages over to the gallery and spending the afternoon making sure everything was hanging just so. It had a good run and I’m excited to search for future venues.

And now I’m off to work on another illustration and do a little commission work. I hope everyone had a great weekend. It went by pretty quickly for me – but I kept busy and had fun.

July 27, 2010June 15, 2024

Mr. Kangaroo

This piece was inspired by a trip that I took the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. A lot of my animal collages are inspired by trips to the Natural History Museum when I swing by their animal exhibits – or the National Zoo. I’m really having quite a bit of fun making animal collages – after making so many figurative pieces earlier this year, it’s definitely a nice change of pace.

I’m beginning a lot of exhibition prep work for the animal exhibition that goes up this coming Sunday, August 1st. My “to do” list includes framing all the artwork, preparing an artist talk, and getting together all my postcards, business cards, etc. to set out during the show. We shall see how it goes…

July 23, 2010June 15, 2024

Pelicans

Inspired by a walk through the National Zoo – these two pelicans were swimming about in the seal exhibit. Again you can see I’m drawn to the blues in water. There’s just something that’s really fun about working with reflections in water.

In other news, I was pretty excited today to receive my contract for my solo show at Krempp Gallery in May 2011. It’s in Jasper, Indiana, although I’m planning to take a road trip when the time comes to deliver about twenty to thirty collages for the show. One of my goals this year was to get an exhibit in a gallery from a state that I’m not affiliated with at all and I’m pleased that my work will be off to the Midwest before long.

Anyway, I’m off to work on getting things a little more organized around my room. I’ll be busy with quite a bit planning these next couple of weeks.

July 8, 2010June 15, 2024

Sunbathing Turtles

Cuddling Turtles by collage artist Megan Coyle — “Sunbathing Turtles.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″
Order a print

Another collage completed during my Visiting Artist time at the Torpedo Factory. Time is flying by – before long July will be over!

My solo show was installed this morning. I created sixteen pieces for the show, but we were only able to fit fourteen on the wall. Tomorrow’s the big day for the opening reception – I just need to take care of a little prep work tonight to get ready tomorrow. It’s crazy to think that I knew I had a solo show at the Art League Gallery back in 2008. All last year I worked on the body of work for the exhibit. And now, it’s finally up and ready to be viewed! Exciting!!

June 13, 2010June 14, 2024

Polar Bear

I’ve been working away on several more animal collages at the studio. I’ll bring them back home one of these days so I can take pictures and post them.

Yesterday was my first Saturday working at the studio. It was pretty exciting how busy the art center was and I received a lot of business from the visitors. During the week, things are much slower in comparison with the weekend. I’m also in the process of ordering more magnets – I’ll have to work away with making a lot more of them for the upcoming week.

In other news, last night Scene Gallery had an opening for the “Local Scene” exhibit. It was a pleasant gathering and the art looked great in the space.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I think I’ll go ahead and take care of a few errands before heading off to the studio.

May 3, 2010June 14, 2024

These Crowded Streets

Another scene inspired by one of my trips to NYC. I’ve enjoyed working on different angles of figures – by doing so, you can come up with some interesting narrative images. This was a piece that I revisited to edit and add more detail to it. Sometimes, when working on a collage, I can have a tough time getting into the piece. Although by setting it aside for a little bit of time, I can return to it later on with renewed energy and fresh eyes.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I somehow managed to hurt my foot the other day so I’m doing my best to rest up so I can move around like normal soon.

May 1, 2010June 14, 2024

Windy City Walks

This piece is pretty thick in some areas from layering lots of magazine cut-outs in order to get the figure looking right. It’s funny how that happens with some of my collages – if I have to focus a lot of energy and time on one area, the collage will feel heavier in that area when I lift the piece up.

In other news, Carly from MommyGarten.com mentioned me on her site in an article, “Art & Work of Creative Parenting: Field Trip Friday.” She discusses using collage as an art project for your child.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I’m taking care of quite a few errands, working on a new collage for my show in July, and of course, having some fun.