Even as the smaller Peacock Roundel develops, the large Victorian mirror
piece is playing around the edges of my mind. After working up and
discarding a few designs, its doing me a lot of good to be at a distance
from it and working on something akin to it but not connected. This is
giving me some perspective and some space for my subconscious to fiddle
with details. I took the cardboard backing out of the frame to use as a
template. There were a lot of directions I could go, but it wasn't until a friend commented on one of my Pinterest pins that I made a leap about what to do with that odd sort of squashy top arch. It was then I made the connection between the late Victorian time period and Art Nouveau. Suddenly the arch made sense. Now I have gone haring off after Alfonse Mucha and Gisbert Combaz. Most people know Mucha's graceful, sinuous women and flowers - very distinctive. And there's that arch again.
And the clear simple composition and mass dynamics of Gisbert Combaz fit exactly with this technique and the visual impact I want it to have.
Mix it up with a little of Bilibin's Firebird,
an Art Deco book cover
and colors from Medieval Persian mosaics,
and perhaps a Palekh box or two
I think I have a plan in sight......
