Collaborative Canvases – Dale Augustson – REDD4

REDD 4

Collaborative Canvases

Rita McKinley, Elise Jones, Dennis Lawrence, Dale Augustson  4

The concept of doing collaborative canvases was introduced to us by Dale Augustson.  He had seen a similar group create them.  Our idea was slightly different from theirs.

We brainstormed several ideas and decided on our process.  We agreed that at this juncture we would do Abstract paintings for the final product.

First each artist painted a background on 3 different canvases; each background was to be unique.  The artist signed and dated the back of all 3 canvases.  Then we traded canvases so that no one had their original background painting.

Second we took the paintings home with us and lived with them for a while seeking inspiration from the original background.  The next step was to paint the middle ground of the artwork. One could build on the background, add to it or radically change it as inspiration directed.  When finished we again signed and dated each canvas.  We met again and discussed the works and then traded canvases in a way so that each artist had new canvases that they had not worked on previously.

The third time we spent about a month living with and looking at the artwork seeking inspiration.  The last part of the collaboration was to create the foreground and finish the painting.  We had total freedom to create as we built on the previous artists’ work.

Finally we met again with the finished paintings. We critiqued them and discussed any small changes we felt would enhance the works. We also collectively decide on the titles.

The placards below the paintings show the title, artist (in sequence of the work) and photographs of the first and second stages of the works in progress.

Thank you for supporting our collaborative journey,

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Dale Augustson is a juried BOMH artist