Portraits

Good morning everybody. You will be happy to know that my dentist is back from his vacation, and that means my treatment will be carried on today - I can hardly wait!
The promised storms were not much yesterday evening, just a bit of thunder and lightning, at least here. Hope nowhere else suffered damage again either!
Over at *The Cheerful Stamp Pad* the theme this week is *portraits*. The challenge is open for 2 weeks. For my DT piece I have made an altered canvas, perhaps rather unorthodox for this theme. The canvas was one which had already been used and *stripped* to give it a new lease of life. I made a background of torn paper which I painted with gesso. There was some gold leafing round the canvas before, so I left some it as it was, and painted the rest with gesso, which turned it a nice greeny grey colour. For the main picture I have used a postcard of a self protrait of Stefan Lochner, which is one of the wonderful pictures in Cologne Cathedral, painted in the middle of the 15th century. The pictures of the woman and the hands underneath it are part of some wonderful carvings in Bamberg Cathedral, carved my the great master Veit Stoss at the beginning of the 16th century. I used different embellishments - lace, sack-linen, some torn pieces of a map, some prima leaves, a flower made from antique book sides and coated with Utee, and two Rafel Angels. And of course, one of my little leopards is running through the picture. At the top I have used a silver brooch, which has a small piece of Roman glass in it, bought from the Roman-German Museum shop in Cologne.

That was all for today, now I need to prepare myself for the dentist! Have a nice day, take care of yourselves, and thanks for visiting!