Mom's birthday present

I painted this collage for my Mom for her birthday. It's 24x24, and so I couldn't mail it to her. They are coming to visit this weekend so I'll finally be able to give it to her. I hope she likes it. I'm so pleased with it that I can't hardly stand it!

I slapped on some gesso to help smooth the canvas a bit, and to add some texture. Then I painted it black. I glued down some dictionary pages and some text about cherries. I then did this peeling painting technique where you put petroleum jelly on the spots you want to keep the black. I painted a sandstone color over that, and the jelly resists the paint. Messy, but cool.

It's really my first full scale collage, and really one of the few times I've worked without a pattern. I enjoyed it so much. I suspect I'll be playing around with this more too.

UPDATE--She liked it. She really liked it. :-) Mom was completely surprised and thrilled with her present!