With chaos...

...all around me as I clean and purge (we're planning on a spring down-sizing), I've been doing much too little in the studio.  That does not mean, however, that I can't appreciate the out-of-control colour around me as we head towards the end of fall.

Here's what I mean:

The front lawn is carpeted with maple leaves.

The shrubbery in the backyard fairly shouts with riotous colour against the clear blue of the sky.

The mountain ash down the street is laden with berries.

There's glistening gold everywhere I look.

Even the fallen colour carries that POW factor.

Strawflowers are gorgeous at this time of the year.

Sunflowers are at their best as they wave goodbye to summer.

Of course, there's colour on the web when I need a break from all that sorting/organizing/cleaning, etc.  Here are a few of the luscious goodies I found over the past week or so.

Wendy Mamattah

Anita Bloch Ceramics

Debbie Colby

We live in a magical world, don't we?  Everywhere we look there's a feast for the eyes.

Printing with leaves...

Friday's post was about checking out the possibilities inherent in the garden.  My favourite part of summer is the opportunity to play with the leaves and grasses in the garden, and this year is no exception.

I start by accumulating some leaves and grasses, chosen for their interesting shapes, a soft brayer, paint and a support.

My first trick is to place the foliage on a support, cover with a sheet of paper, and use several passes of the brayer to flatten the heck out of the leaves and grasses.  This makes it much easier to create an impression.

I roll the brayer in the paint (fluid consistency seems to work the best for me), and then over the greenery.  Then, placing the greenery paint side down on the support, I use another piece of paper on top, and apply the brayer over all.  It leaves (pun intended) a lovely impression.

I then place the leaves on a piece of palette paper and repeat the process, leaving a transferable image (see Direct Transfer technique) to be used later in other pieces.  (Because palette paper has a plastic coating, the direct transfer works without scrubbing the back - something that is required for magazine direct transfers - oh happy day!)

Even the mat board that is being used when I'm coating the greenery has interesting patterns - another start, for another time.

A second colour and another layer is applied  in the same way.

A soft wash of quinacridone gold over all, with a paper towel scrunched into the sky area to create interesting variation, and

my play is done for this set of foliage.

Leaves, and more leaves

Honestly, I am aware that most people view gardens as 1)  a source of wonderful summertime vegetables, or, 2)  an oasis for the soul, filled with flowers, butterflies and the scent of heaven.

For me, it's that time of the year when I'm in the garden checking out the foliage for artistic possibilities.  The virginia creeper has a beautifully shaped leaf,

and my resident 'money tree' is filled with purply green coins.

The quack grass is tall and stately,

and even the other weeds are looking as though they have possibilities.

 The peony bushes, while not yet in bloom in our yard, are rampant with potential,

and the strawberry leaves surely wouldn't be missed if I picked just a few?  (After all, John's already been eating the strawberries, without sharing!)

Look at these gorgeous carrot tops

and the serrated edge of the currant leaves.

Can you tell what's coming up in the Tuesday Tutorial?  Well, of course, we're going to be printing with leaves!

Urban Decay...

...takes on a new meaning in the town the size of Creston (5000+, just barely).  It happens mostly at the tail end of autumn, as we shift into the winter months.

The gardens shift from green and glorious to faded and rich,

the gardeners bundle their debris,

the roadsides become a rich tapestry of tangled brush,

 and the sidewalks and lawns gain a new carpet.

Yards look filagreed

and intensive decomposing starts.

In colours ranging from dun

to delightful,

 our world starts to molder

and deteriorate

in ways that are eerily beautiful.

Does your neighbourhood shift from one season to another this way?  What do you think when you hear about urban decay?

I'm leaving...

...but in a good way.  In the fall, the two maple trees in the front yard keep us 'leaving' until well into November.

  They are each well over a thousand feet tall (or at least drop leaves as though they are) 

They cover the lawn,

 

and the car,

and require constant raking

and bagging.

It's one of our major signals that fall has fully arrived.

They fill our yard with colour and richness, provide pressed leaves for mixed media fodder, and are a strong antidote to the thought of cooler weather to follow.

What is your major autumn signal?  How does your colour grow?

Almost Gone...

Fall is nearly over, and I can feel the edge of winter even here in this mild and lovely Creston valley.  I'm doing everything possible to hang onto the colour and feeling.

Autumn Herstory

I'm presently working on four different pieces around the autumn theme, utilizing those pressed leaves that are so addicting.  Incidently, does anyone out there have a sure-fire method of using pressed leaves in their work?  I'm presently working on experimental method number 3,459...

I love how the leaves look so different when the colour of the background is changed - it's all about location, location, location!

Autumn Pinned



Autumn Herstory has a cool, wintry feeling because of that chilly undertone in the background, and the heat in Autumn Pinned is palpable with the quinacridone gold background.  So I'm sticking with that, and ignoring winter! 

Further confessions...

...of an addict - I collect leaves, leaves and more leaves.  I press them,

dry them, store them,

create with them, and then do the same thing the following year.  I have a collection of fall leaves that would likely rival the number of Carter's peanuts, and yet I can't seem to stop. 

At the front of the house where our two glorious maples reign (see previous post), the ground is covered with such a vast array of vivid reds, oranges, golds and green that my mouth waters in anticipation.  Now if I could just stop picking, pressing and drying, I might actually do some creating with them.  More to come....