Painting Leaves--Again

"September", watercolor

 Time to Paint the Leaves--Again

Each year at this time I find myself painting leaves and wondering why I am so drawn to this subject. What is it that compels me to capture them on canvas or on paper. Even as I look around my house and notice that leaves seem to be integrated into my decor, I still question why I want to paint them every year. Well obviously I really like leaves. 

But is there another reason why I year after year I paint the leaves? Aside from their interesting shapes and glorious fall colors is there another reason why?

"Falling Leaves" watercolor

"Fall Fantasy" hand-painted silk

In much of my artwork, landscape paintings in particular,  I am intrigued by transitions. Night to dawn, daylight to twilight and eventually sunset. The lighting and atmospheric changes at these transition times have been dominating themes in my recent work.

"Up with the Birds" watercolor

Seasonal transitions, especially the transition from fall to winter have also been themes in my paintings. I love those last colorful gasps of fall before the quiet solemnity of winter. And I remember how just a few months ago those leaves were young and green. Now they are ready to fall to the ground and become part of the earth.

"Falling" watercolor 

The Last Transition

And then there is always the last transition--from life to death. For me leaves represent that transition   as they turn colors, then fall to the ground and slowly decay leaving a delicate network of lines to hold together the last little bits of leaf. 

Painting the leaves is just another way to remind myself of how fragile this life is, and sometimes how short it can be. Painting the leaves is a reminder that nothing lasts forever. We are here for a while and then fade away and become part of the earth. 

But even in that transition there is a beauty. Just like the leaves, a delicate network of lines holds us together until the final release.

"Leaving" pencil

But until that time I'll just keep painting the leaves! 

"Fall Leaves" food coloring (yup!) and metallic paint

I Finished the Challenge!

I have finished the first painting from my challenge to the North Syracuse Art Guild last week. 

In my demo, I painted an abstract watercolor background over a piece of crumpled tissue paper, which was placed over a sheet of wet watercolor paper. As the paint seeps through the tissue paper, interesting lines, crinkles and abstractions form. The challenge was to find a way to create a painting using the shapes that emerged from the abstraction.

I had used lots of warm colors and as soon as my tissue paper and watercolor paper were dry, I was able to pick out falling leaf shapes. And since it is Fall (although it's going to 92 degrees today), I guess I was somewhat influenced by the season, so leaves emerged from the abstraction.

 

The first photo is the abstract background. The second photo is the painting nearly done. Since this painting lacks a traditional focal point and resembles surface pattern more than a foreground, middleground , background type of composition, I needed to do something to draw the eye to a specific area. 

So I used the rusty red color to create a path for the eye to follow. In the third picture the rusty red is darker and causes some of the major leave shapes to come forward, while creating a darker space for other leaves to recede into. I also added more leaves to enhance the pattern of falling leaves.

Happy painting everyone!