Check out the Bussum Nieuws newspaper this week, Wednesday 15 December 2021, with a special item on sustainability during the festive season.

Wishing everyone a sustainable and Merry Christmas!

Artist Marcus Akerman loves working with residual materials

International artist Marcus Akerman of the Artes foundation calls himself the King of Collage. In his studio in Bussum he works on colorful collages that he carefully puts together and with which he has great success.

The Englishman works a lot with colorful papers and when he has leftover material, he puts it in a large box. He thinks it’s a shame to throw it away, but he also knows how to make something beautiful out of it. He posts in the photo next to a triptych that he completed from leftovers. Something readers can try at home as well.

“It’s very simple and fun to do,” Akerman says. He explains what you need. “If you have collected beautiful packaging material, wrapping paper, old money from another country or paper with an interesting structure, you can get started. I myself work with a ‘wooden box frame’. I tear the papers into nice strips and make a nice collage. Make sure your composition is well balanced, after which you smear the paper together with a brush with ecological glue. Stick them on the frame.

When the work is dry, finish it with a glossy varnish spray from, for example, Natural Earth Paint. This makes the art beautifully shiny, because that’s what we like at Christmas: bling, bling, nice and shiny, affordable and sustainable,” he laughs.