Art with Words and Phrases

Cup of Joe by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Cup of Joe”
Collage on paper. 20″x16″
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I hope everyone had a happy Monday – I’ve been busy working away with record keeping (so yes, it hasn’t been the most exciting Monday ever). I thought I’d share one of my latest pieces that I did for an upcoming exhibition. The show has a theme of words and phrases used in art, so I decided to do a cup of coffee.

Taking High-Quality Photographs of Artwork

This weekend I didn’t get a chance to work on my portable portfolio that much – I just swung by a few stores to pick up supplies for it. Before I start putting together prints for it, I want to take higher resolution pictures of my artwork. Previously, I used an old point-and-shoot Canon camera to take images of my work. I also went outside on nice days to take images. Now, with my higher resolution Nikon camera and my light kit, I can control the lighting for the images and take much crisper and clearer images.

Below are a couple works of art that I retook images of. The collages are actually back from my high school days in 2004, when I used to incorporate oil pastel into my collages. The images with caption 1 are photographs I took with my older camera while the ones with caption 2 are what I took with my newer camera. It’s amazing what a difference it can make when you take better images of your work. So now it’ll take me a while to sift back through my work to take better images – but for documentation’s sake, the work will be well worth it when I’m done. With better photographs, you can get much better prints and have nicer looking pictures on your website.

Orange Girl by collage artist Megan Coyle
[1]

Orange Girl by collage artist Megan Coyle

[1]

Figure by collage artist Megan Coyle
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Mr. Monkey

Mr. Monkey by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Mr. Monkey.” Collage on paper. 9″x12″
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Yesterday was quite the hectic day – lots of running around doing errands and the gallery meeting went well. Now all I need to do is create enough new artwork for the show in May. I wish I had more time for the deadline, but we shall see what I manage to come up with. I also need to get started with ordering frames for my large 24″x18″ pieces.

Anyway, here’s another animal collage that I’ll possibly use for the August animal exhibition.

Mr. Turtle

Turtle by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Mr. Turtle.” Collage on paper. 9″x12″
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Another animal collage for the upcoming show in August. I took another trip to the zoo for inspiration the other day. I’ll post a couple of pictures from the day when I get around to uploading them on my computer.

Boston Terrier

Boston Terrier by collage artist Megan Coyle

“Boston Terrier.” Collage on mat board. 5″x7″
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Here’s the last dog portrait I did for my latest mini collage series – I’ll probably work on more of these in the future. At the moment, I’m busy getting new artwork prepared for my show in May. I’ve decided to create a few new figurative pieces so that my two portraiture shows this summer will be a bit different from one another. Since I really like working on animal portraits, I might just have to find time on the side to start a mini cat series. So we shall see…

New Work for a New Year

Goldfish Pond by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Goldfish Pond.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″
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January 8th – 24th, 2010
Nicholas Colasanto Center; Alexandria, Virginia
Map and Gallery Info

Megan had two of her latest collages, “Hungry Hippo” and “Goldfish Pond,” in the Del Ray Artisan’s “New Work for a New Year” exhibition. Both pieces are part of an animal series that Megan is currently working on for a solo show in August.

“New Work for a New Year” included art from local artists. All the artwork on display hadn’t been previously exhibited at a show or gallery.

New Work for a New Year

This weekend I gallery sat at the “New Work for a New Year” exhibition which is up in the Nicholas Colasanto Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Two of my pieces, “Hungry Hippo” and “Goldfish Pond”, are going to be on display in the show from January 8th until the 24th.

Here are some pictures I took of the exhibition:

Megan Coyle's Exhibitions
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Megan Coyle's Exhibitions
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Seal

Seal by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Seal.” Collage on paper. 16″x20″
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Another piece inspired by the zoo. This guy always seems lounging about whenever I walk by.

I’m also getting ready to plan out a few more portraits. The first batch I was working on last year was intended for a show this July, and now I’ve decided to provide some new and different work for a portraiture show I’m having in May. So stay posted, there’s more to come…

Poodle

Poodle by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Poodle.” Collage on mat board. 5″x7″
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Another addition to my mini dog series. I have one more dog collage to post and then I hope to begin work on a cat series in the not so distant future.

Already I have quite a few things on my plate for the New Year:

  1. Create new artwork for my upcoming solo exhibition in May (the first of three for the year)
  2. Take higher resolution photographs of all of the collages that are still in my possession
  3. Go on a magnet-making spree
  4. Start planning out a children’s book

Busy? Yes, but art making is so enjoyable that I don’t mind all the work.

Anyway, I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to a New Year.

Goldfish Pond

Goldfish Pond by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Goldfish Pond.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″
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Here’s another piece I’ve done to go along with the body of work I’m working on for one of my solo exhibitions this year – it will focus solely on animal collages, with most of them being inspired by my trips to the zoo.

I hope everyone had a Happy New Year! I’ve started off my New Year by quitting my desk job so now I can pursue working for myself in web design and have more time to work on art.