Tree Leaves

Artist’s Note

This acrylic is mixed media, and relates to a shrub I saw when walking along a path in Pacific Park, The leaves are a brownish red, and the stalks are speckled variegated colours.

I attended a workshop at Parker Art Studios, where I was introduced to a new, for me, process. The panel is covered with absorbent ground, similar to gesso, then transparent watercolour mahogany, brown and ecru inks were splashed at random, followed by dropping some alcohol on the paints which created a beautiful series of blotches. Then I dropped in some water, and scraped away some of the colour. I dried the result using a hair dryer. When dry I applied ghosting which is a method of using open acrylics, rolled onto plexiglass, and applied using a brayer to the whiter areas on the panel. Highlights were achieved by mixing 50 to 50 two blues, ultramarine and cobalt blues, plus medium, then Corbet green plus black. When dry, I added green gold and alizarin red. A fun project which has opened up new techniques for me to try. For more information scroll down to the three photographs which inspired the painting. I chose Number 3 for the abstract.