The Painted Collage: Creating & Painting from Original Reference Imagery
8 Week Class | Registration opens 2026-07-02 12:00 PM
This course explores the use of collage as a tool for contemporary painting. Students will engage in an exploration of spatial relationships, utilizing physical collage materials to construct original reference imagery. By deconstructing and reassembling found elements, participants will discover a unique way to generate their own visual sources.
The curriculum begins with collage explorations to develop a primary reference study, learning about different ways to approach collage and think about composition. Once established, students will translate these tactile compositions into independent painting projects under structured instructor guidance. Technical focus will be placed on texture replication, color mixing, and the translation of fragmented imagery onto the painting support, with weekly demos on different technical focuses.
This course is ideal for intermediate to advanced painters who are looking to bring a more intentional, structured approach to their painting practice, and expand on the ways in which an idea is brought to life on their easel.
Note: There will be no class on Friday, October 16th.
$420
Total
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- What You Will Learn:
- Construct original reference imagery: by deconstructing and reassembling collage elements to move beyond using standard photographic sources as reference material.
- Increase compositional skills: Explore complex layering techniques to build depth and balance within a contemporary composition.
- Explore texture replication: by learning to translate the physical surfaces of collage and printed material using painting techniques such as glazing, scumbling, drybrush and detail lines.
- Develop an independent painting project workflow: for transitioning from tactile, fragmented sketches to a cohesive, independent painting project.
Please keep all purchase receipts in case items need to be returned.
Painting Materials:
You do not need to come to class with painting materials for the first few weeks! Your painting support, medium (oil or acrylic) and paint colour palette will depend on your collage reference that you create in the first few weeks of the course. 1-on-1 discussions will occur with the instructor to figure out what materials will be best to purchase for the class.
Collage Materials:
- Various magazines, colourful papers, ads, packaging, etc. that speaks to you
- Note: not all imagery has to be found imagery - you may find/use images from books, online, personal photographs that you are interested in integrating into your work.
- Optional: Colour chips from Home depot in colours/a palette that speaks to you
- Scissors
- Cutting mat
- Exacto knife
- Glue stick
Emily Joyce
Emily is a Toronto-based painter and paintings conservator. She specializes in the study of paint materials, from traditional egg tempera and oil paints to contemporary acrylics and mediums. The crossover of art and science in her profession has allowed her an in-depth exploration of the history and techniques of painters from a range of historical time periods such as the Renaissance, Impressionism and Pop Art. These studies have inspired her classes and workshops at the TSA. Emily has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) with a minor in art History and a Master's of Art Conservation (Queen’s University), as well as a certificate in Traditional Materials, Methods of Painting and Restoration techniques through San Gemini Preservation Studies in Italy. Outside of the TSA, Emily works at Toronto Art Restoration in the west end, conserving a range of artworks from Tom Thomson landscapes to Michael Snow's Eaton Centre’s Geese.