Pear Collage Finished

5x7 inches, paper collage on canvas board support

This collage paper painting was started about a month ago, then set aside for other projects.  Oddly, it wasn't the pears that caused me problems in this one, but rather the table.  The old dictionary pages I ripped and used started out looking too similar to the pears.  My first solution was to use a thin glaze of acrylic on that area, but the result looked muddy and unappealing to me.  My next thing was to add the dark brown paper, this time from a glossy magazine spread.  That was better, but I still wasn't  satisfied.  I ended up adding some pieces of a very old (1950s) hardware store receipt, and a few more pieces of dictionary pages, this time stamped with a design. Now I'm feeling much better about the results.  I used a bright blue under-painting on this picture, and let it peek through in places to spark up the warm golds and oranges, and to pull the image together. I'm looking forward to seeing this one framed.