Creative Collage

Do you have a collection of saved and interesting paper, tear outs, bits of fabric and general stuff you have been saving, have wanted to use but never have – for years? Take a journey into self-expression through creative layering and collage.

Open to all levels of creative experience, Denise will take you through the fundamentals of colour, design and composition to prepare you to fully immerse yourself in the creative collaging process. In abstract or realistic works, play with colour, texture, images and discarded ephemera, and combine them with patterned paper and paint.

Add drawn and stitched lines to create a completed two-dimensional image.

Be free to create, combining your life experiences with new skills.

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Course Info

There will be demonstrations on creating the ground to work on, plus colouring more paper with colours and patterns you love.

When these are dry, they will be used to glue onto the surface and extend the collection of stuff you brought with you.

Students will learn how to cut, tear, and manipulate different papers and see what happens to the edges when you tear them in different directions.

You will learn to find those fragments of colour that you just might want to use that are in the middle of an illustration from an old magazine article. You will learn how to deal with glue and then how to add drawn and stitched lines to create a completed two-dimensional image.

Part of the demonstrations and discussions will be on how to go about designing your working surface and how to work with colours. Students will be able to choose an abstract or realistic way of working.

This is a chance to express your ideas freely once you have been guided through some technical knowledge.

This is a fun and supportive course to open your creativity. No prior experience is required.

Please bring the following on your first day of class:

PAINTING

  • Watercolour paints
  • Palette
  • Brushes large and small

If you prefer to work with acrylics, bring them with the appropriate brushes

PAPER

  • A3 pad of 300gsm watercolour paper
  • A4 pad of 120gsm paper
  • Fifty sheets of A4 printing paper
  • Optional – small pieces of paper to work on, plus extra for trials. Bring as much as you think you will need for five-days, you can also be adventurous with the base you work on.

COLLAGE MATERIALS

  • Variety of interesting papers: wallpaper, wrapping paper, handmade papers, coloured papers, fancy papers, old envelopes, old sheet music, old maps, old photos, old calendars, scrap drawings, scrap prints, newspaper, magazines with photos, tear outs, old books, tissue paper, foil chocolate wrappers, brown paper, corrugated cardboard
  • Threads in variety of colours
  • If you sew – bits of fabric and fabric scissors, different size chenille needles for sewing through work surface

GENERAL SUPPLIES

  • Marking pens and pencils
  • Notebook and pen/pencil
  • Cover for the table: old sheet, plastic shower curtain, newspapers
  • PVA Aquadhere glue – available at hardware shops
  • Variety of different sized cheap bristle brushes for gluing
  • Small towel and paper towels for working with watercolour paints
  • Rags for glue clean up, plastic bag for a wet rag
  • Old newspapers or an old telephone book for gluing, and to keep work surfaces clean
  • Two tall water jars – one for watercolour, one for glue brushes
  • Apron or old shirt
  • Paper scissors large and small
  • Needle nose tweezers
  • Cutting board
  • Retractable blade knife.
  • Awl – a sharp implement available at haberdashery or fabric shops

Happy Camper Reviews

Denise is an exceptional teacher. She created a warm and supportive classroom climate and encouraged us to experiment with various techniques and processes to create beautiful works of art. Denise is flexible enough to encourage students to choose their materials and develop their ideas while engaging in the artmaking process but is also very skilled in giving students positive and helpful feedback to create unique art.
My best experience at Camp Creative - which I have attended five times before - is largely due to Denise. The group I was in was supportive and positive. I have come away enthused and motivated with new skills.
Denise Vanderlugt is a treasure. She shares her own experiences to help us see the process and how ideas can organically evolve. Her knowledge and willingness to share were exceptional. Her skills are second to none, and she has a great sense of humour.
Denise was inclusive of everyone in our class. At all times, she provided amazing tuition and extended our art journey, making the experience very memorable.
I came to this course without preconceptions but with an open mind to learning new skills. The teacher was an exceptional person and made everyone else feel that they were special too. She respected our ideas but gave expert guidance.
Denise was top class - generous, kind, thought-provoking, and knowledgable.
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Denise Vanderlugt
Course Tutor

Denise Vanderlugt

Denise has lived in the Whitsundays, Queensland and has been working as a full-time artist since 1982. Hobart is her new home in 2023, with changes in the environment, the colours, and the landscape. These are all a new adventure for the creative mind who brought her studio stash with her. Her images are of the natural world were largely inspired by her own large bush garden. Now, a new garden and mountains are ready to inspire, another adventure leaving the tropical bush for cold climate plant life.
She works in many mediums, with quilt making as her primary practice. Her other pursuits are painting and collage, coiled basketry, artists’ books and printmaking. All this combined knowledge goes into her own practice of collage with watercolour, which she developed from the desire to create her own personal palette of colours.
In 2007, Denise published her children’s book ‘WHERE RAINBOWS LIVE’, for which she received two international awards for self-publishing. It is now in it’s second edition.
In 2009, as one of Strand Ephemera Townsville sculptors, Denise hung 105 rainbow jellyfish in a big tree. These jellyfish were made from recycled materials with the coiled basketry technique. Her work has been featured in books and magazines in Australia and overseas.
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