On Saturday, I spent the day outdoors, with a number of hours in my artist chair looking at this
I was exhibiting at an art event sponsored by the guild of Museum of Art DeLand, held in a beautiful leaf-filled nursery. Over in the corner, beyond my display, I watched kids play with a barbecue grill covered in pretend, plastic hot dogs and hamburgers. (The nursey sets up enjoyable vignettes for visitors). I enjoyed watching kids pretending to be backyard chefs, feeding pretend grilled stuff to their Moms.
As I was watching the kids, at one point my eyers moved up the scene to the large leaves silhouetted against the sky, above their heads.
Wow. Those are really interesting leaf shapes.
I already knew that I like leaves. I used big leaf shapes as anchors in The Ways of Sunlight.
The Ways of Sunlight Art Quilt Detail
I filled my quilt with leaf shapes in House of Leaves
House of Leaves Art Quilt Detail
But, what I was seeing was another lesson from leaves.
To see them just as shapes, and to use those organic shapes as the possible beginning of a composition. Hmmmmm. . . .
Here are some photos of what I saw.
Frequently when I discover an interesting image, I will take it into PhotoShop Elements and play with it. I can eliminate backgrounds, duplicate it, flip it mirror image, layer multiple copies on side of each other.
This is very helpful when I want to preserve detail, or use the photo as the basis for a photo transfer.
But, today I had the feeling some low-tech, non-computer explorations might yield something interesting. So I just traced the leaves.
Using clear plastic, I could now layer my different views on top of each other, crop the shapes or try out different arrangements.
I could have drawn them freehand, but I experience a nice freedom in the simple act of tracing without my mind trying to be sure I’m getting it right. And in tracing, one picks up all the varied, interesting shape complexity that inheres in the organic thing. It’s always more interesting than any shape I would create myself.
Tracing with a loose hand is an act of discovery and responding.
Those leaves revealed a lot of possibilities. And it was a good art therapy experience after my day of exhibiting.
Thanks, leaves!
For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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