Contemporary Collage Online Short Course

This course invites students to explore the playful, inventive world of collage and mixed media. Whether you’re new to making or looking to refresh your practice, collage offers an exciting, accessible way to experiment, express yourself freely and develop fresh ideas in unexpected directions.

Through a combination of illustrated talks, hands-on demonstrations and practical workshops, you’ll explore how images, textures, colours and layers can be combined, disrupted and transformed into something new. You’ll discover how collage can spark ideas for painting, drawing and even 3D work, opening up fresh possibilities for your creative journey.

The course is built around the idea of ‘learning through making’. Doing and redoing is encouraged as you cut, layer, rearrange and rework materials into surprising and inventive results. Along the way, you’ll be introduced to a wide range of approaches and techniques to help you push collage beyond its traditional boundaries.

During the course, you’ll also experiment with creating your own papers through drawing, painting and mono-printing. These rich surfaces will be cut up and repurposed into exciting collages, giving you the chance to play with scale, surface, line, and tone. By mixing media, you’ll build collages that are full of energy and contrast. To deepen your practice, we’ll also look at the history of collage, from its early pioneers to its relevance in today’s art world. Seeing how artists past and present have used collage will inspire you to think about how you can develop your own personal approach.

This course is suitable for both beginners trying collage (or art) for the first time and for more experienced artists who want to explore collage to feed new ideas into their existing art practice.