Guest Artist

Guest Artist Challenge

Melissa Peck

We feel very lucky to have Melissa Peck joining the gypsies for our textured rubbings challenge this month. We love Melissa's work for it's whimsical nature, use of color and attention to detail. What you might not notice in her work below is the bits of ephemera or messages Melissa incorporates into each piece that adds to the depth and meaning of the painting. You can view more of Melissa's beautiful paintings here.

David Bonner gallery

Scottsdale, AZ

Melissa's bio

These projects are a feast for the eyes!! So much detail can be found examining each and they all incorporate both traditional paper arts elements and some artist inspired materials including lots of found object, opaque inks purchased from an artists specialty store in Melissa's travels and bold gel pen colors. We love the the foundation for each project was monochromatic color combinations... we never knew our products could look so good grouped by color! Interlaced in the dramatic colors is signature Melissa Peck objects, figures and other oddities that you see in all of her master art pieces.

Color

5x7 black board book journal

Cover

-painted black book board with a blue opaque ink

-collaged circles cut from the vintage ephemera pack, old books, personal papers, gum wrappers, etc.

-colored the chipboard alpha numbers and letters with colored pencils

-used brads as embellishments for the center of the circles

-covered an ATC pocket with an image that she liked from a magazine clipping

-applied a textured rubbing to the pocket.

Melissa had a very happy accident when the textured rubbing peeled away from the magazine image leaving a white negative image pattern. She enjoyed the look of the textured rubbing even when she didn't get a complete transfer... gave it character.

-used the vintage and photo metal index tabs... we love the way she showcased the number 2 by having it the only colored tab

paper bird page:

-used a scrap of green cardstock for the background then created a tree from the gypsy market patterned paper tape.

-she created a collage of pieces of the vintage transparencies by cutting the designs out of the 6x6 sheet rather than using the entire piece. She pieced them over the tree and bird using savannah and gypsy market paper tapes. She used a standard hole punch to create polka dots with the paper tape.

-she used her own typewriter to create a background for the body of the bird.

the opposite page showcases her daughter's drawing with glitter glue... artfully framed in shades of green

Old book page for the background and then layered a piece of brown cardstock over the top then created a "tree" with and formed an opening in the trunk by layering ovals loosely cut from a variety of gypsy market papers and further detailed the tree with strips of papers and leaves cut from vellum. She created one of her signature figures coming from the opening in the tree from bits of paper... notice the fabulous black & white stripeed neck created from tas paper. We love the way she adorned the party hat... created from an old letter she received from a friend with red type on it. She embellished with a partial red velvet textured rubbing.

Ochre, golds and a classic black and cream make up the color scheme for the intricate page... LOVE the way this comes together. She used pages from an old disney book, preserving the books' scene from dumbo and using it as a color foundation for the page. She added pages from the book pieced on top of each other then overlayed it with parts of a vintage 6x6 transparency... it is finished off with gold textured rubbings... both glitter and foil some gypsy market striped paper tape and a beautiful paper flower made with gypsy market, victoria and barcelona papers and a victoria brad. Note the ultra cool addition of the ochre colored #2 vintage metal tab.

Beautiful collage

Melissa used victoria Printemps paper for the background and collaged drawings, photos, postcards on the top then altered chipboard alphabet with hot pink gel pens for a dramatic opaque finish and some serious pop! Again, love that she used red textured rubbings on the pink background for an unexpected color combination. The fun flower cut from vellum and found papers showcases her liberal use of staples and hand stitching with multiple colors of pink thread.

4x6 photo carousel tab vignette

LOVE the way she did tone on tone using the red velvet rubbing on the red tab!

She collaged pieces of ephemera and paper scraps together

used the circle M and applied a silver foil rubbing across for some subtle sparkle

used elements from magazines, greeting cards and photos to create a red based collage and ran naked chipboard numbers down the center.

Inspiration

"As you may notice from viewing my paintings I have a passion for color. Often times whether it is a painting or a project I am working on I am often creating monochromatic pieces. More than anything I love the effect of different shades of the same color placed next to each other. Many times I will have 20 different blues or greens in the same painting. So as I was laying out the products thinking about what I wanted to do for this project I instinctively started to group things into color combinations that spoke to me. The arranging of all of them was more secondary. I loved working with the 7 gypsies products and found it important to think out of the box. For example the chipboard letters on the cover were not the colors I needed so I colored them with colored pencils and then also covered the little pocket with a favorite image. I fell in love with the textured rubbings, and constantly found places to use them."

What more can we say?...but,

Thank You Melissa for your inspirational work.