Long time coming to fruition

Begun as an acrylic painting of this model in the studio, with a drab turquoise background, this piece called out for help! What I liked about it, early on, was the squarish geometric placement of the seated figure. The figure seemed very much intact from the beginning, having been painted  originally over a period of 6 hours. The young woman arrived for the session in a black dress with animal print accents. When I began working in my studio to SAVE the work, I realized that the cool colored background space was draining the painting of life. I am so much happier when working with a warm colored palette. This is actually the second layer of collage, where I started adding patterns I loved, over the first selections of papers, blown up versions of computer images, which I then cropped. Some of the original patterning, just as some of my original thoughts, were replaced by thoughts and images more to my liking as the piece progressed. As it developed, I realized that adding flowers to the upper right was a good balance for the floral pattern she appeared to be sitting on. I then invented the floral arrangement from assorted images of blossoms, which I combined through collage, and painted over, until they were to my liking. As the piece developed I found that the model was seated on a couch, or so it seemed,  to which I eventually added throw pillows, aiming to make a more comfortable setting around the subject. In the end I felt like the setting belonged in Architectural Digest magazine or some other elegant house publication, where the chosen home owner agrees to let the cameras into her personal space, where she is then photographed. I definitely was challenged in developing this mixed-media acrylic painting.  Once again, it was a give and take between myself and the materials