Illustrator and designer Celia Chadwick doesn’t let much go to waste. After reading a magazine or newspaper she cuts it up, then colors over the pieces with ink, colored pencil, and acrylic paint to create striking works of collage art.
Celia attended the Savannah College of Art and Design with a bachelor’s degree in illustration. Originally her interest was in fashion, but a collage assignment redirected her love towards art.
Her work crosses over in to the digital realm, too—sometimes it’s finalized in Photoshop, and some her “originals” are completely digital.
The collage below is a straightforward composition with a lot of beautiful elements. The woman in the bathtub is the focal point, of course, but what Celia does well is create a visual “frame” to draw your attention to her.
The placements of the bath curtains, rod, and rug focuse and reinforce our attention on the center of the piece. Celia also strategically uses pieces of magazines to make those flowing curtains, which is a subtle touch, and very well done.
You don’t always think of subtlety when you think of collage, but in some cases less is more. Since this next piece is nearly devoid of color, we can appreciate all the exquisite details that Celia has included in it.
The long curling hair, falling snow, windswept trees and flowing dress all add layers and layers of alluring detail to the piece. Celia’s sharply angled horizon brings quite a bit of drama as well, and when you put it all together, it makes for a very dynamic and intriguing collage.
Last but not least, take a look at one of my favorite Celia Chadwick collages below: it’s an image entirely covered with magazine and newspaper shreds.
All of that planned chaos adds a fantastic feeling movement to this collage. . . and I love that Celia has used wood images for the ship, cloud images for the sky and fabric images for the sails.
Plus, none of the collaged pieces were cut into the shape of the original photo subject. Instead, they’ve been cleverly cut into new shapes with just a hint of that original subject still there.
I’ve greatly enjoyed Celia’s work, and I hope you have as well. Please take a moment to visit Celia’s website if you’d like to experience more of her intriguing collage art.