Fallen Leaves - Mixed Media

The colors are quieter in this painting, more earthier.  The weather is dull and gray.  I wish it would get nice again.  I have spring fever and want to be outside.

Leaf Patterns - a Doodle - I mean a Mixed-Media!

This painting started as a "loosen up project" in a watercolor class several years ago.  We put gauze-like stringy fabric on, torn pieces of rice paper on, threw paint on, and just did something wild.  Mine was so wild I didn't know what to do with it.  I'm not very good at abstract art - I just have to make something representational out of it.  So, I tried to see what shapes there were as a starting point.  I only saw a few leaf shapes.  So I invented some elsewhere.  I used waxy colored pensils and sometimes paint too, to add darkness and depth here and there.  My husband had the idea to make a waterdroplet.  Good idea!  Now it has an "up" and a "down".

While doodling with this, my mind wandered.  I remembered high school days - the books we were issued - we couldn't mark them up, and we were supposed to cover them.  We used cut-up brown paper grocery bags, inside-out, and folded them over the cover of the book.  You could really make a "statement" with the doodles you covered it with.  If you were really good, it was an icebreaker - strangers would look at your doodles and admire them and talk to you.  Funny - why am I remembering this?