Vintage Family Portrait


Currently I am involved in these vintage family portrait pieces. The top piece is a laser print applied to a small canvas by gel medium transfer. I painted and tinted the people and added a pencil line here and there for a sketchy look. I also used pink chalk to rosy up their cheeks! The top and bottom borders are just my painted papers that I ripped and glued on.

The bottom photo shows some painted wood blocks where I’ve collaged on some imagery and fabric. The ladies are printed on white polymer clay and their profiles cut out before being baked. I ran some walnut ink over them after they cooled to give them some tint. These are enormously fun and the possibilities are endless.

Origins

One of my forays into true mixed-media. A smallish canvas that is painted and layered in paper, old sewing pattern and pencil. I painted an image from my Dover book as the lovely odalisque. The butterflies are made in clay and I hammered in nails with various beads around the edge to change the silhouette of the canvas. My little parrot provided the red feather from his tail- one of many that fall out and litter his cage. The whole thing has kind of a tribal, Darwinism kind of feel and that’s how I came up with the title.