still life | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

September 9, 2022June 8, 2024

It’s Corn

Corn collage by artist Megan Coyle — “It’s Corn,” Collage on paper, 5″x7″
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The other day I decided to breakup my flow of working on portraits by creating this still life collage. It was inspired by a song that has been blowing up on social media these days, and I figured I might as well make a collage of corn, film my process a bit, and share my process while playing the song in the background. The most challenging part of this collage was cutting out every little tiny piece of corn and pasting it down. I was alternating between a few different shades of yellow, and I’m pretty pleased with how it looks. The husk is rather simple and the background is really embracing the textures/fragments of photographs that I found, cut, and then layered.

January 25, 2021June 5, 2024

Cherries

Earlier this month I made a “Citrus” collage, which made me realize I should tackle more interesting still life compositions. Completing that piece inspired me to work on this “Cherries” collage. I enjoyed the challenge of working with variations of red within the entire composition. I also worked on this piece while live streaming my process on TikTok, and I had a blast answering questions while working on various stages of the collage.

Lately my color palette has been really bright, and I’m enjoying how my live streaming sessions have inspired me to make so much new artwork this month. “Cherries” is my eighth piece completed so far in 2021.

January 12, 2021June 5, 2024

Citrus

Still life is a subject that I generally avoid. Previously I’ve felt uninspired by most compositions I’ve come up with, although with this piece, I had a lot of fun with it. I think I need to continue to challenge myself with still life. After all, I just might find another composition that excites me.

August 4, 2020June 10, 2024

Caffeine Fix

It’s been a while since I’ve made a coffee cup collage, so I figured I might as well film the process of making one. I’ve had so much fun making time lapse videos in quarantine, and this piece is number sixteen in the video series. I plan to take a break from making these for a little bit so I can focus on other areas of my art. I’m looking forward to finding new ways to share my art and technique with others.

June 26, 2020June 10, 2024

Go Bananas

Another day, another collage made so I could put together a time lapse. Still life has always been a struggle for me, so I’m trying to challenge myself by working on subjects that I don’t ordinarily work on. This piece was especially difficult to piece together, and perhaps it’s simply because I’m not used to making too many food-related collages. Anyway, I’m not sure if this is entirely finished, but it’s finished for now.

June 15, 2020June 10, 2024

Avocado Time

I’m generally drawn to making animal portraits, but the other day I decided to do a still life collage. I wanted to film the process again to create a time lapse video (you can see the results for this one below). And I thought it would be interesting to tackle a simple shape that could be made to look more abstract.

This was my first time making an avocado collage, and although the finished product turned out a lot rounder than I intended it to be, I’m still pleased with the overall look. The shadows and highlights played nicely this time.

April 18, 2020June 10, 2024

Berry Nice

It’s been a while since I’ve tackled still life, so this was my attempt after a long break. I definitely felt rusty. I’m liking how I’m trying out more of a variety these days. I think I might take a couple of weeks off from collage-making so I can experiment with some other mediums. There’s no better time to work on getting creative than the present, especially when we’re all staying indoors these days.

Anyway, this piece was also part of my recent time lapse video series. Here you can see the collage getting pieced together from start to finish:

October 9, 2018June 11, 2024

You Can Have Your Cake

The other day, I worked on filming another time lapse video of my collage-making process. Usually when I’ve completed a time lapse video, the collage is also finished. This was one of the few instances where I felt a need to revisit the piece and rework it a little bit. I especially wanted to reshape the plate and the shadows that were cast on and by the plate.

You can take a look at the video here:

As an artist, I often feel like my process can be disconnected from the finished works of art. Viewers don’t necessarily realize that there’s quite a bit of piecing together involved. Thus, I’d like to create more of these videos as a way to bring viewers into my studio, and give them a better glimpse of the work that goes into each collage.

September 27, 2018June 11, 2024

Summertime Popsicle

A collage of what’s popping when it’s summer. It’s another addition to my dessert series, and even though it’s not summertime any more, I figured I’d make something inspired by the last days of summer that weren’t so long ago.

I also decided to make something a little more abstract, which was a bit of a challenge for me. I have a tendency of getting really focused on the details of my compositions, which makes it hard to take a step back and simplify my artwork. I think I’ll try to tackle more abstract pieces in the future. Sometimes I like to experiment with different subjects and materials, just to see what happens.

September 12, 2018June 8, 2024

You’re Sweet as Pie

Some desserts are a little more intimidating to collage than others. I decided to tackle a pie, and was afraid that it might end up looking like a nondescript blob. I’m happy that this one turned out better than I expected.

This is part of my dessert still life series, where I’m tacking subjects that I used to avoid as an artist. I used to think that still life art was boring to make, and this exercise of completing a series, has made me really enjoy the art of still life – specifically, the art of food art.