![Collage of sun above the laguna](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/sun-above-the-laguna-1.jpg)
Recently I took the online class ‘Minimal Magic‘ from Laura Horn. It was a fantastic class on creating your own art papers and making small mixed media collages. It’s one of the few that I completely finished. Also, it is one of her few classes of which I actually loved the pieces that I made myself. Usually I am in awe of what she makes, her colour combinations, her techniques, and I’ll start enthusiastically on a project. But when I start creating myself I find that my own pieces are not that fantastic.
![Venice: weeds and circles collage](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/weeds-and-circles-1.jpg)
![Venetian window and weeds collage](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/window-and-weeds-schoon-1.jpg)
That was certainly not the case in this class. Maybe it’s because I gathered my own visuals this time: I looked at pictures I took in Venice and looked closely at what I loved in them: the particular colors of the city, the weeds, the patterns of the ironwork, the cracks in the facades. I made a little catalogue of these images and let them inspire me for these collages.
![Venice: weeds and triangles collage](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/weeds-and-triangles-1.jpg)
Laura showed us how to prep the papers: taking out pages from old books, painting on top of them, using tools to make textures in the paint, using a limited colour palette, repeating shapes and patterns and so on.
![Venice: collage of pink space and circles](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/pink-and-circles-1.jpg)
![Venice: collage of green arch and weeds](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/green-arch-and-weeds-1.jpg)
This was the first time I worked on a big series and I was really in a flow, I felt I could go on and on. This is definitely something that I will come to back to, I feel that I haven’t exhausted my ideas on this subject and with these techniques.
![Collage of four slices of Venice](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/four-slices-of-Venice-1.jpg)
![Venice: collage of circles in a grid](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/circles-in-grid-1.jpg)
![Collage of circles and squares of Venice](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/circles-and-squares-of-Venice-1.jpg)
![Sketchbook collages of Venice](https://danielleroeleveld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/sketchbook-collages-Venice.jpg)