With side lighting you can begin to see that the painting has a deeper dimension. Matboard has been cut to raise the leaves and blossoms above the background. In this way, the dark background color will not flow into the flower areas.

Lying flat, the edges of the matboard are more apparent.

The mat is glued to the wooden surface. This is sealed with acrylic matte medium or gel. The surface is covered with three coats of gesso and painted. The arylic underpainting is applied and allowed to dry. Over this the encaustic paint is placed to provide more color intensity.