"Irises" - Mixed Media Collage - 16" x 20"

It is finished! And I submitted the jpeg just in time for the show catalog. Thanks all of you for hanging in there with me and cheering me on. It was a rather scary piece for me because typically when I work this large, I draw a detailed design of the piece first, then use that design as my template. This piece; however, was completely "design as I go." I felt a little as though I was free falling.

The final steps for this piece included outlining the petals, buds and leaves with metallic gold fabric paint and adding the beards by using extra course pumice gel tinted with quinocridone gold acrylic paint.

The flowers and leaves, which appear to be cut off on either side of the piece are, in reality, wrapped around the edges -

Just for fun, I've recapped the steps below.

Step 1 - Canvas is tinted with Prussian Blue acrylic paint

Step 2 - Random scraps of paper are glued to canvas with soft gel medium

Step 3 - A sheet of Kinwashi (transparent Japanese rice paper) is layered on top of the scraps.

Step 4 - Ogura lace papers (Japanese) in yellow and green are added.

 

 

Step 5 - Added randomly positioned strips of marbled Momi paper.

Step 6 - Created iris blossoms from various papers including a shopping bag from a gift shop (3rd iris from left)

Steps 7-11 - Made stems, leaves, buds, bugs, and glued them all together - then splattered with metallic gold acrylic paint (my own special blend)

Next came layers of varnish - two in gloss, two in matte. The varnishes permeate the layers of paper, adding luster and sealing them. This protects them from dirt and UV rays as well as seals off any acidic properties that may be present.

Then I added the final details for the finished look at top.

It was a lot of fun, but now I need to move on to the next composition.