a new painting

I took one of my early collages that I didn't really like anymore and decided to rework it.  I had this gardening ad torn out of a magazine from years ago that has been calling to me - so I figured it was time to use it as inspiration.....

My inspiration (above) and my starting point (below) an 11x17 canvas

This hot mess had some interesting textures and I liked bits and pieces of it, but overall I saw more wrong than right with it.  Time for a makeover.

Started by creating a new background - our friend gesso covered up most of the collage then layers of acrylic to make the background..... (it's actually much more green than blue - somehow my camera washed out the color and I didn't mess with fixing it in PSE)

 Here's the finished product - I like that I can see the hint of the bird profile still (lower right) and that my lines aren't too terrible in spite of painting over such rough collaging underneath.  I signed it but it was illegible cuz it's so bumpy so I washed it off and will try again in another place (maybe on the back:) )  I quite like how this one turned out.