Wednesday, May 14th and Thursday, May 15th - 10 AM to 4 PM- $285 - All materials included, but see below for additional suggestions!

Collage is many things to many artists - a fine art medium, a form of self-expression, a personal vision board, a creative warm-up. For artist Bridget Benton, it’s the foundation of her artmaking practice. But what is collage to YOU?​

Join Bridget as she helps you find your unique voice in this incredibly flexible medium, while sharing the tips and techniques you need to take collage to the next level. This much-requested two day workshop will be sprinkled with creative prompts and exercises to warm up your creative muscles, the opportunity to create your own collage papers and materials, and an in-depth exploration of different approaches to collage.  

On the first day, Bridget will share methods for altering found imagery, creating acrylic skins, and using simple image transfer techniques. She will also introduce students to Gelli Plate printing, a process which will allow you to quickly create dozens of colorful patterned papers.  These papers can be used as backgrounds, jumping off points, and inclusions in your collage pieces.  Gelli Plates are a great versatile tool for many different mediums - consider this a bonus ‘class within a class’!  

Over the course of the workshop, Bridget will also include the basics of actually MAKING a collage - the pros and cons of a variety of adhesives, sourcing materials, and different substrates. Bridget will also cover mixed media collage techniques, including the use of acrylic paint.  We’ll also discuss what makes a successful collage composition, how to manage issues of copyright, and ways of sealing and displaying your final works.​

You will come away from this class with a sense for what combination of glue and surface works best with your own style, how to use collage to spark your creativity, and ways of bringing your own imagery and mark-making into your collages.    

This class seats 9 students.

Bridget Benton is  the lead instructor in Encaustic Methods,  Nature Print, Ecoprint and Collage at 310 ART. In addition to local teaching, Bridget is a faculty member  of the international encaustic online encaustic masterclass, Painting with Fire, as well as the author of the award-winning “The Creative Conversation: ArtMaking as Playful Prayer”. Teaching credentials include the Creative Problem Solving Institute in Buffalo, NY; the Newport Visual Arts Center in Newport, OR; Art Unraveled in Phoenix, AZ; and Collage in Portland, OR. as well as the Nature Printing Society’s Annual Workshop where she served for several years as the event’s Educational Coordinator.