"La Vie Est Un Voyage" ~ Life is a voyage makes me think of foreign travels, listening to different languages being spoken, and letters from distant lands. Inward journies, memories, and dreams.
I started with a page torn out of "Girls Who Became Famous" a vintage 1886 book. Page 203 "Elizabeth Barett Browning". I then drew, with a brush, the girl, with Pelikan's "Brun Brilliant" (or brilliant-brown) ink. I love the luminescent brownish-red color! She was then set aside for a while. One day I picked her up again and added a wash of sepia ink to tone the page, and a blush of red watercolors for her cheeks and lips. A few days later I drybrushed some ochre toned acrylic onto her skin, and rubbed most of it off with a cloth, and sanded a bit for texture. Hmmm...what next? She sat again for a while.
I searched through my treasure trove of book pages (some vintage) with many foreign languages. Oh the beauty of those different shapes, those mysterious words! I mounted the vintage page with her portrait onto a wood cradled canvas and collaged some of those delicious torn words onto the page. Ah! I'd forgotten about the tiny envelope that held vintage postage stamps from France! I then added those, and a wash of sepia to tone the page again and unify all the collaged elements. White acrylic paint was added for details, and then a wash of red acrylic ink to stain the border and wood sides of the canvas. To fill in her russet hair I used the bold brush like Faber-Castell PITT artist pen, with a wonderful The original 5 x 7 painting is up at Etsy. I also have a print the same size. I love the soft subtle muted rose of the print, which is softer in person than in the pictures. La vie est un voyage. Life is a voyage. Enjoy the journey! Love to hear what you think.
