an update, a blossom and bookpages 29

Hi there! First things first...Thank you all so very much for keeping my family in your thoughts and prayers. I feel so blessed to have an extended family here in blogosphere :)  My sister is the bravest women I know and has the most positive outlook on life at the moment. To bring you up to date, she is terminally ill with advanced stage metastatic breast cancer which has traveled to her brain. She has had brain surgery a few weeks ago to debulk one large tumor and the other is inoperable. To weeks post op, the MRI revealed that the cancer is continuing to grow. She has opted for 14 days of full brain radiation. I can't even put into words how heart wrenching it was to have a conversation with her regarding hospice and end of life decisions. She is quite the trooper and my shero :) My other sweet sister has been spending the last week with her, taking her to her daily radiation treatments. 

Today I have a mixed media painting to share! I was inspired to join along with the July  Creative Cart Blanche challenge where the theme is to combine blossoms and bookpages. This is my first time combining mixed media with oil paint and I am lovin' the results! I carefully tore out several pages from an old oversized dictionary that my sister gifted me that she purchased from a thrift store and proceeded to collage them on a 12" x 12" MDF board. After collaging them in place, I washed with gesso to create a surface for oil paints.

I only painted one LARGE poppy blossom as I followed along with one of my favorite artists - Gary Jenkins. I'm hoping the sweet ladies at Creative Cart Blanche won't mind that I bent the requirements... 

 You can still see the print from the bookpages peeking through the transparent layers:

I have to play around with the mixed media and oil paint technique. I'm not sure but I don't think the turpenoid likes the matte medium that I used to adhere the bookpages unless it's paper towel pillings that remained on the surface after wiping off the thin layer of linseed oil that was applied prior to painting the blossom. Trial and lots of errors will surely help me find what works and what doesn't ;) It's all a learning process and I'm loving the journey ;)

As I mentioned at the beginning of my post, I'm joining along with the July Creative Carte Blanche challenge, Blossoms and Bookpages

as well as linking up to the current Paint Party Friday post:

Thanks so much for visiting and don't forget to get your mammogram!
Be Sweet ;)