Lucky Ducks

This summer I met a wonderful artist, Brandie Isley, whose business is called "Little Pieces of Art". Check out her blog which is linked on my side bar. When I saw her art, I finally understood the attraction to collage art using vintage ephemera. Brandie has a gift for this style.

I was inspired to put together my own version to give my very dear friend, Jutta. She would often say, "We're such Lucky Ducks."

I started by selecting a digital image of Jutta and me. Using Photoshop Elements, I removed the background and color to end up with a gray scale image. After printing the image with a laser printer on regular paper, I coated the image with Liquitex Matte Medium. Once the acrylic medium was thoroughly dry, I wet the paper and carefully rubbed it off with the pad of my thumb. I was left with a transfer image. I repeated this process with print outs of text and music.

The art was placed on a gallery wrapped canvas. I started by layering thin glazes of acrylic paint. After deciding where to postition the transfers, I began painting the sunflowers. The transfers were applied with matte medium. Once these were dry, more layers of paint were added. Texture was added by using stamps, sponges and cheese cloth. I applied the same techniques to the wrapped edges of the piece. A fine art marker was used to add subtle details and my signature. I finished with a few layers of matte varnish.