Playing with Collage by Jeannie Baker
As a kid, I spent hours poring over every tiny detail in Jeannie Baker’s books. I’d get excited when I recognised a particular piece of material or plant she’d used in a picture, and still, to this day, I’m baffled about how she got the little boy to look invisible in Where the Forest Meets the Sea. I even clumsily tried to recreate her style in my Grade 8 art class. I really wish I’d had this book back then.
Playing with Collage is a perfect book for any Jeannie Baker fan of any age, though it is skewed towards the young. Baker breaks down making collages into simple steps; she gives practical tips and advice to help your own work take shape and also helps you look closely and notice things about the materials around you and in front of you. I really love how simple she has kept her examples – they aren’t finished, intimidating masterpieces, but instead look completely achievable. This is an excellent and very simple breakdown of Jeannie Baker’s process and I highly recommend it for any of her fans and any budding artists out there aged 5+.
