Thirty in Thirty Day 5 Leaf

Poor poor leaf.... thought this one would be much easier.  Every time I looked at the reference I saw more and more colors and was overwhelmed. Scraped it off several times and decided in the end to work without  the reference. Worked wet on wet with impasto paints.

Oils on canvas on cardboard

6 x 8 " 

Thirty in Thirty Day 4 Looking Up

The season I miss the most is autumn with all its lush colors painting the trees. So many shades of browns, reds, yellows and purples. One could get drunk with all that color it is so overwhelming.

Here I am back with impasto, paint straight from the tube. Used a rather large brush and palette knife. Everyone seems to tells you to choose a brush bigger than the what you would usually pick. Very difficult to handle wet oil paint on a small format with a large brush.  With paint thick, it's hard to fuss around  and not make a mess.

Oils on wrapped canvas on cardboard

6 x 8"

Thirty in Thirty Day 3 Patterns of Leaves

I don't recall offhand where I read this but sometimes in a painting that hasn't worked out as you planned there are still sections that have worked.  It was suggested to photograph those "sections" before reconstructing. I now remember where it was... Serena Barton in her book Wabi Sabi Painting with Cold Wax,  She was discussing creative reconstruction when sometimes we have to let go of a favorite part of our work. When cutting up two older works, I found interesting sections that could work on their own that I hadn't noticed as a whole.

This next painting/sketch was built on one of these cutouts.

Crayons on cutout piece of collage on cardboard

8 x 6 inches

Original cutout

pieces of newsprint got loose