A RETURN visit was made by Dionne Hood to Keighley Art Club to run a workshop on the first-time subject of collages.

Dionne, known as Dee, is a development officer for local libraries and her base is at Keighley Library. She is an artist and at one time taught art at Bradford College and Keighley College.

Dee has exhibited collage work at Cartwright Hall in Bradford and one of her images was printed in the Telegraph and Argus in February.

In that collage, Dee used multimedia in a semi-abstract style, and included some precious metals, paint and ‘found objects’.

This shows the freedom of variety and creativity which sometimes can be more difficult when using a single medium.

When she visited Keighley Art Club, Dee brought lots of fascinating patterned paper, new mirror frames, scissors, two types of glue, a map, newspapers and varnish.

Each member chose whether to produce a paper-based collage from a picture or imagination, or to adorn a mirror frame.

Before we started, Dee gave us various facts about the background and history of the collage, and circulated lots of examples.

A surprising item was the cover of The Beatles’ album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, designed by William Blake, which was actually a collage.

The word collage is from the French and means “to glue”. Dee explained that Picasso was the first to use the medium, and showed us a few of his collages from the Cubist era.

Works can be abstract or traditional, and Dee told us that Richard Hamilton in the 1960s reintroduced the artform as pop-art.

Examples of collage landscapes and portraits, including Marilyn Monroe, were passed around our members.

Keighley Art Club members designed, cut and glued their chosen item. Very few of us had made a collage before and Dee was surprised at how differently we all thought, and our finished items. She took some photographs.

Bearing in mind that at last year’s Keighley Show the handicraft section had a collage section, hopefully a few more will be entered this year as a result of our work under Dee Hood’s guidance.

Keighley Art Club member Mick Ford showed us a collage cow he had made the week before, on his mobile phone.

Rod Tickner produced a musically-themed mirror frame, Jeff Mitchell glued a landscape of a Keighley view, and others used flower backgrounds, so there was a great variety that night.

We were told that stick glue is for paper works, and PVA glue is for frames, which are then vanished.

We had a good turnout, which goes to show that at Keighley Art Club we are keen to participate in many subjects, and to learn new skills.