Happy Times, Happy Life

Last week's class was learning to combine watercolor and collage.  

I had torn out the back page of a magazine which had a Chanel watch advertisement I thought it was so pretty.  At first I had set it aside for a potential watercolor inspiration.   Then I thought I would use it as the basis and jumping off point for the collage.  I started thinking of what went along with clocks - time, life, happiness...and it all came together.  

As further proof it is a good thing to shop the clearance/sale sections of art supply stores…I searched my studio and found pretty papers, stencils, a key, Liquid Pearls White Opal, a Sea Blue #1200 Derwent Inktense pencil.….and of course, not missing the opportunity to shop/acquire more artistic goodies - silver leaf!  

I randomly embellished parts of the Chinese letters I painted for "Happy" with the Liquid Pearls - Coco Chanel was all about the pearls!   Added a ring of hieroglyphic black and metallic silver paper around the watch face to make it more interesting, and glued a "Life" key to the hour hand of the watch.  Since the advertisement paper was too slick to paint with watercolor, I used the Derwent pencil to hand-letter "Happy" on the camellia.  The blue-green background I painted first was to represent how I felt to be in the pool swimming, and aquamarine is my daughter's birthstone and mine.  To give it a little more glitz, I thought I would use silver leaf around the edges.  I had never tried gilding before, but it was easy to figure out along the way and I liked the random effect.