8 x 8 Mixed Media - "Imagination"

Well , what can I say! It DID take some imagination to get this piece to work in the end!

It is a 'reworked' piece, and by that I mean an old canvas that had been previously painted and collaged and I wasn't happy with. So I decided to 'canabalise' it and do something else. There are so many layers on this piece it defies belief!!
Firstly I removed what I could from the piece while it was dry, I wanted quite a bit of texture and wasn't really happy with the result so I gave it a spritz of water and then gave it all a good rub over , this managed to remove a couple of the previously collaged layers in places, when it was dry I gave it a rub with some sandpaper and a wipe over with a damp cloth just to get rid of the 'bits'.

The whole thing then got a coat of Gesso and was set aside to dry. I used a few techniques for the background - random painting with acrylic,  some crackle finish with PVA Glue and acrylic paint, more random painting with acrylic paint and when I zapped it with the heat gun to dry it quick the layers started to bubble - Nice! LOVED this idea so just kept it in the piece! I ended up highlight that with a lighter shade of paint using the 'dry brush' technique. I love when you  have 'happy accidents'!

The Jars, light bulbs and flowers are stamps from The Artistic Stamper and from her Steampunk range , ! I LOVE these stamps!  The Pocket Watches and Chicken Wire background stamp were also used.

The bottom light bulb was the plain bulb and was stamped onto paper coloured with Distress Stain in Wild Honey, I then over stamped it with Dots Background in Fired Brick Distress Ink and then triple embossed it, sadly the photo doesn't show this.

The Jars and watches were done in a similar way only I used gloss medium to 'varnish' the jars and a Sakura glaze pen on the watches.
The Quote is from Albert Einstein and is handwritten on some old book pages which were coloured with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink.

REALLY pleased with this piece and I have had a lot good feedback about this so this one will be used for 'show' and may even end up with a companion because it has given me an idea to do something more with those pocket watches!

Thanks for dropping by,

Take care

Jackie x