The Girl in the Garden

Hello all! Lora here continuing my obsession with old masters paintings in combination with mixed medium.
What I've got for you today is a beautiful painting done by Antonio del Pollaiuolo called 'Portrait of a Young Woman' that I have surrounded with very modern watercolor flowers. Love the juxtaposition!
I am calling her, 'The Girl in the Garden'.

A detail shot of her pretty face.....

I began with the ATC Shrine Box and the Layered Frame-Aria. I primed both pieces (well, three pieces as the Frame is two pieces) and then painted both background pieces black and the front filigree of the frame gold. After the filigree piece dried, I added a little Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold over the top. It makes the gold pop and it looks oh so much richer.

After things were completely dry, I papered the outside of the box (which I forgot to take a picture of) and I began to play around with the composition of the interior of the box.

I thought I could work around the fact that the frame was a bit shorter than the box was, but I decided in the end to cut the bottom bar off of the frame.
I am always trying to find the perfect solution to getting different levels of depth inside  a shrine/box and this time I chose to cut up lengths of a semi translucent green straw.
Easy to cut and easy to glue....

I also used foam tape when I needed just a little lift.

After the interior was glued in and everything dried, I attached the frame around the shrine box with glue. (I love Aleene's Tacky Glue)
And was nearly there. However, I didn't like how unfinished the bottom of the piece was since I cut off the bottom of the frame.
Then I remembered I had those awesome Victorian Corners-2. I prepped one just as I did for the frame and attached that to the bottom.  Much better! My junk store find of a cute little brass candlestick finished the piece off.

As a finishing touch, I added some dot detail to the filigree to tie it in to the detail I added to the image of the girl.

 SUPPLIES
 ATC Shrine Box
 Layered Frame-Aria
 Victorian Corners-2

Additonal Supplies
Liquid Pearls in White Opal and Garnet
Black Acrylic Paint
Gold Acrylic Paint
Quinacrodone Nickel Azo Gold Acrylic paint
Antonio del Pollaiuolo's Portrait of a Young Woman
Floral collage images

Thank you very much for taking a look!