A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer

The May/June 2014 issue of Somerset Studio has a great tutorial by Caitlin Dundon titled Faux Encasutic with Gel Medium. I used the techniques in her article to create this piece. It was really really fun and I definitely want to play around more with layers of gel medium to create a faux encaustic look.

Every Christmas I decorate the Christmas tree with feathered bird ornaments and branches and make spun tinsel nests for them. I used a photo transfer of one those ornaments for this piece.

I used gold and silver foil to mimic the ornament and typed the *Joan Walsh Anglund quote erroneously attributed to Maya Angelou to honor her this week. A painting feels incomplete to me without pencil work. It smeared when I added the layers of gel medium, but I just worked with that challenge. Next time I'll try spraying it with matt fixative before I layer the gel medium on.

We all just have to keep our little bird song alive.