Process, and considering the reverse on canvas

I've been working on a large canvas that has some acrylic roughly brushed on it to respond to with my collage additions.

The back of the canvas (above) has been interesting to me. Typically I work on wood panels so seeing how the papers are adhering to the canvas has been fun. The dotted texture is created when corrugated is applied to the front of the canvas. I'm thinking if I decide to work further on canvas, it'd be intriguing to approach the composition from both sides, applying some pieces to the back side in order to have a textural effect appear on the viewing surface.

This piece is nearly complete now and will be shown in January at Spark Gallery's Members' Show. Thought I'd post a few of the steps along the way. You'll see that I've turned the canvas to evaluate which way the composition is strongest as it evolves. I'll post the finished collage here soon.

Big collage beginnings

  

As promised, here are images of the early stages of my work on a new and larger-than-typical collage. Pages from an old book were adhered to the wood support to create the background layer. I like the casual grid of the type from these pages as a place to begin. Because I wanted to dim down the readability of the type a bit, I tinted the pages with acrylic (top photo). Then it's back to the easel as the first pieces are applied. 

The pages come from a 1961 edition of Who's Who in the Theatre, a thick tome that the public library was discarding. It was fun to skim the text as I glued... each entry has a space for "Recreation." My favorite answer was from a British actor, born in the early 1900s, who answered, "sauntering." Phone numbers had formats like: "Ambassador 5438." The volume also lists every part and play/film the actors were in... a time capsule of sorts from another era.

I'm working on several collages at once these days, but will continue to post photos of this one as it progresses. I have an idea of where the composition is going... but it's always an adventure to see where it goes. Serendipity* is a factor!

*Love the sound of this word (so appropriate to my work), and its derivation: coined by Horace Walpole, suggested by The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale in which the heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.” (origin 1754)