Painterly Collage in Rut Bryk’s style
Here’s my recent art journal spread, inspired by a Finnish ceramic artist, Rut Bryk (1916-1999). The Espoo Museum of Modern Art is currently showing her work, and as a big fan of her work, I had to see the exhibition!
Rut Bryk
Rut Bryk is very well-known in Finland but not so famous worldwide. However, you might know her husband, the skillful designer and sculptor Tapio Wirkkala. Rut Bryk was an illustrator who got a job at the Finnish ceramic factory Arabia in the 1940s. Her early work was fairly naive and illustrative. But after working with ceramics for some time, she began adding textures to her work. Her 50s pieces were very mid-century modern.
In the 1960s, her work grew more dimensional and abstract.
The abstract pieces she made are stunning.
This black city view is one of my favorites.
Many of Rut Bryk’s artworks are composed of small ceramic pieces. They look like quilts or crocheted blankets to me.
Rut Bryk’s and Tapio Wirkkala’s daughter Maaria Wirkkala is also a well-known artist. She had made an installation of Rut Bryk’s excess tiles for the exhibition.
Create a Paper Collage in Rut Bryk’s Style!
Get inspired by Rut Bryk’s brilliance and create a paper collage with these step-by-step instructions!
You will need hand-decorated papers, acrylic paints, marker pens, and gel medium or paper glue. See ideas for hand-decorated papers: Basic Instructions, Frugal version, Kiwi, Arboretum, Spring Flowers (PDF download)
1) Paint the Background
Paint the background black.
2) Cut Collage Pieces
Cut collage pieces to simple shapes like rectangles, triangles, diamond shapes, and circles. Cut big, small, and medium-sized pieces. To make the pieces look like handcrafted ceramic plates, round the corners and soften the straight edges so that they are slightly wavy. Don’t worry about the colors too much, as you will be painting over them.
3) Glue the Pieces
Using gel medium or paper glue, begin gluing the pieces on the black background.
Pile up pieces so that some of the smaller pieces are glued to the bigger pieces. Before gluing, add black paint so that the piece on the top will have soft black borders. This will make your work look more dimensional.
Don’t fill the whole background but leave some of it black.
4) Paint Lightly Over the Pieces
To make the pieces look softer and to mute down their colors, add thin layers of acrylic paint over them.
Paint blocks where the black background is visible. Use neutral, fairly dark colors that suit well with the black background.
5) Draw Spotted Grids and Frame Collage Pieces
With marker pens or felt-tip pens, draw spots so that they form grids. These grids can continue over the blocks. The size of the spots can vary. I use Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens as they work well on acrylic paint.
Frame the painted blocks and collage pieces with a black marker so that they look firmly attached to the background. I also used white Chinese marker to add few white lines here and there.
6) Paint Slightly Over Some Areas
To finish your work, add thin layers of paint to some areas. These painted areas represent light and shadows over the overall composition.
Here’s my finished spread again.
Extra Project – Decorating a Box
My husband has made a wooden box for my paint tubes. I have painted it golden, but the bottom part of the lid needed some decoration. I had already painted the framed area red, so I just added black paint to the collage pieces.
Then I continued the process like in the instructions. Finally, a layer of gel medium was added to protect the paper pieces.
I like the idea of opening the lid and seeing the collage.
Thank you, Rut Bryk!
Expand Your Artistic Imagination!
This blog post is an example of how you can learn and get inspired by famous artists. This is how I see it:
– If you want to find your own uniqueness, examine all kinds of artists and styles!
– If you have already found your style, keep on experimenting and expanding your skills!
Mid-Century Modern Style for Art Journals
This spring, I have published a new art journaling mini-course each month for Imagine Monthly. May’s mini-course is called Modern Mid-Century. This mini-course is all about mid-century modern style. You can use it to create decorative art journal pages that are not only flowers and hearts but show a wider range of designs.
Discovering a Magic Formula of Mid-Century Modern
The main inspiration for the Modern Mid-Century mini-course came from Annikki Hovisaari’s ceramic Peacock (“riikinkukko” in Finnish). Annikki Hovisaari was a designer in the Finnish ceramic factory Arabia in 1960s. We have the peacock on the living room wall. I look at it each day, admiring. So much can be expressed with simple shapes and thin lines! The mini-course includes plenty of samples.
When I begin examining a new style, I try to see what’s essential there. What could be removed without changing the impression. And also: what could be added without loosing it. It’s like calculating a formula for a certain style. The secret is not trying to solve the whole big equation. It would be too difficult and highly argumentative. Even the experts of 20th century styles argue whether something is mid-century modern or not. I try to avoid that and just pick few of the central features. Then I focus on their relationship, forgetting the rest.
The best art classes give you ideas that you can expand and adjust to your liking. Whether you like mid-century modern or not, you can use the basic formula. With that, you can move forward towards your own ideas and aesthetics. This kind of conceptual approach will bring focus to more personal than to the style itself. Instead of trying to follow the style, you will be making new discoveries through it.
I made a couple of small pieces after finishing the mini-course. The first one, on the left below, is a birthday card made for my husband’s nephew. The second is a digital piece combining the idea of mid-century modern and the concept of a watch.
Create Your Own Mid-Century Modern Art
Sign up for Imagine Monthly! You will not only get Modern Mid-Century, but all the mini-courses published so far, immediately after the purchase.
Imagine Monthly also has a private discussion group at Facebook. It’s fun to see what everyone has created from the mini-courses. In the middle of the month, I also lead a discussion topic related to the month’s theme.
I believe that every art journal needs pages that are handpainted and handdrawn. It is joyful to browse pages that are more like illustrations than just layers of paint. With Imagine Monthly you will get new formulas for stretching your skills and discovering new techniques. Sign up now!
Bringing Life to Illustrations – Coloring the Air
This is an art journal spread called “Chain of Generations.” I made this to express how decorative arts and crafts have connected women through generations. I feel I am part of that long chain, one foot in crafting and another in creating art.
From an Accidental Start to an Intentional Theme
The making of the art journal spread began almost accidentally. I had doodled a border on the right page a long time ago. Then many months later, I had quickly drawn a woman from 1920s and glued it beside the doodles.
A few weeks ago, I saw wonderful photos of Ukrainian folk art (pinned some to my Pinterest board Fantastic Folk Art). I got an idea of women connected with flying ribbons. I made a quick sketch with a pencil and then added more details with a drawing pen. I also got started with the coloring, but finishing felt too much work back then.
This happens to me often: I begin with one idea and end with another sometime later. I think it’s one of the best things in creating art and especially in creating art journal pages. When there are no fixations, surprising connections can happen. Like here, the women on the right are from different eras: Rococo and 1920s, just perfect to tell the story of how folk art and fashion and their timeless connection.
Inspiration from Atmosphere
While coloring the spread, I thought how I have always felt disconnected with folk art of my country Finland. Instead, I have always loved Russian and other Slavic countries’ approach to it. Finnish folk art feels very plain and unimaginative to me. Before the success in IT and education, Finland was a poor country. Many who come to Finland are surprised how few historic buildings there are and how modest the life seems to have been.
I have been born in Eastern Finland, near the Russian border, but visited Russia only three years ago. The grand atmosphere of the big churches in St. Petersburg made a big impact on me. The mosaics at Church of the Savior on Blood (yes, all the “paintings” are made from tiny mosaic pieces) lighted by the candles inspired my coloring.
The atmosphere in these kinds of old, precious buildings is amazing. As the theme of the spread was not only practical but also spiritual, an atmosphere of an old church felt a good choice to bring in.
Coloring “The Air”
Imagine that I had colored the spread so that I had stayed inside the outlines only. The page would have been much flatter, contained much less atmosphere and emotion. When I color, I also try to color “the air”. I try to think not only about the light but also how the air feels on the face and how it interacts with the light.
Things don’t have only one color when they are exposed to light. When coloring, think about the air and the lights flowing through space. Color over the outlines and show those less obvious, but so essential streams!
Buy the E-Book – Coloring Freely!
Coloring doesn’t only have to be calming. It can be expressive and inspirational. Purchase my e-book Coloring Freely to learn more about coloring freely with colored pencils. The book can be used with any coloring page or with any blank page. Buy now!
Create Doodled Luxury!
Happy New Year everyone! With the new year, a new class has started. Imagine Monthly is a series of 6 mini-courses, released one by one from January to June. Imagine Monthly is a bit different than my other online workshops. It has a slower pace and you can sign up even if the class is already running. January’s mini-course “Doodled Luxury” has just been released. You will get it right away after signing up!
Why This Course?
I wanted to start the series of 6 mini-courses by showing the potential of free hand drawing. For many, drawing is about being able to copy something realistic but there’s so much more that you can do with flowing lines. I think drawing should be redefined and enabled for everyone. It’s my mission to enable you to enjoy drawing and have a great time with your growing imagination! (Want to ponder more about the ability to draw? Read this blog post: “Can You Draw?”)
Creating with Luxury in Mind
When developing “Doodled Luxury”, I spent a lot of time thinking about the concept of luxury. I think it’s not just something to buy, it’s more about creating something unapologetic and self-sufficient. Something which makes you feel rich in a way that has very little to do with money.
While experimenting with the techniques used in “Doodled Luxury”, I created an art journal spread that summarizes the ideas that I had in my head: bringing a clear focal point, getting inspired by the many layers of luxurious clothes, letting quantity increase the quality.
The spread above is just a background study for the course, but I wanted to show it as an example of how your art journal can contain “idea boxes” which in turn can lead to more advanced ideas like this one:
This Alphonse Mucha inspired collage has influences from Marie Antoinette’s period. Can there be anything more luxurious than art nouveau combined with rococo, expressed by hand-drawn elements? Doodling truly can produce luxury when there’s more than enough of it!
Experience the power of simple handdrawing and other easy techniques
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