"A Speckled Pair," Daily Painting # 2

"A Speckled Pair," Available (Click Here)  5" by 7" Oil on Panel

Two Moldy Leaves

     I love the way leaf mold started to grow on these sturdy leaves but had yet to make much of an impact before the leaves dried out leaving only a variety of speckles. They were most similarly speckled of all the leaves I collected. They nudged me asking to be shown off together.


Andy Goldsworthy

Leaf Horn by Andy Goldsworthy
This image is from a well thought out
blogpost exploring Andy Goldsworthy's
work and process.

    All this painting of leaves and thinking on leaves is connected to a recent pleasing intrusion of my interest in Andy Goldsworthy's nature art. I was wondering what he might do with leaves that hold a three dimensional shape. Usually he plays off the color of leaves, their flatness, and their transparency. I've seen him work with leathery thick flexible leaves to create horns, but none of these leaves are truly three dimensional.

Andy Goldsworthy 

      These leathery oak leaves I've been painting hold a distinctive three dimensional shape. I imagined he would carefully stack them on a still day, controlling his breath to prevent disturbing their balanced layers.

Green to Yellow Leaves
by Andy Goldsworthy

      I was not ambitious in my stacking for this painting,  I balanced one leaf carefully atop the other. (A whisper of a breeze came though my window halfway  through the painting. Even as unambitiously cautious as I had been the upper leaf toppled!)
     I imagine spending whole days outside contemplating form and my understanding of natural objects to then thoughtfully create my own impermanent sculptures. (I'm not romanticizing this at all, am I?) With quick paintings and some sketchbook brainstorming I'll dream further. But my mind drifts on to buoyant playful painterly thoughts too.



I'm thinking about bunnies...

     I've decided to not limit my subject matter on these daily paintings, at least for now.  So for a big shift in subject matter, my next daily painting will be of a wild rabbit with afternoon light glowing through the pink of its ears.  I'm itching to capture an animal facial expression.

     Too much yacking, not enough painting. Ta-ta 'til tomorrow.

Beautiful Decay, Daily Painting #1

"Beautiful Decay," Available, 6" by 6" – Oil on Panel

The Subject

I'm fascinated with the leather like thickness of the leaves on our local live oaks in California, it gives the impression of obstinate sturdiness. For months after a leaf has fallen it can remain intact.  (The leaves featured in the painting come from two massive scrub oaks,  Quercus wislizeni.)

Small Opportunity

I usually find myself admiring the individual leaves, but painting the whole of the craggily trees, often dead and completely without leaves. In this small quicker painting I allowed myself to explore the individual leaves I'm drawn to.

Most Intrigued

I started intending to gather one or two leaves and I was so intrigued I ended with a whole pile of them in my hands. A subtle sort of persistent autumn can be found under a live oak. Some leaves simply bleach to a perfect cream, others deteriorating reveal the red and yellow that is normally overpowered by green as bits of blue and black mold speckle them and eventually they become a light brown. I painted more leaves than I should have since I'm still figuring out how to fit this in to my day and more complexity equals more time, but sinking myself into thoughts of painting and these leaves was worth it.

Process 

All the panels I bought for daily painting are preprimed with a smooth finish. I don't recommend them. It is like painting on slick linoleum, the paint wants to smoosh away from me and carry the layers below it away too. As soon as I can I'm going to break out the gesso and give those panels surface texture.

On to More

The more I look at the leaves the more there is to see and to interpret in paint. My next daily painting's subject matter is planned!