Friday, February 19, 2016

Researching the new theme


There has been blessed silence for some time, what with Christmas and summer and involvement in other activities, but I have been busy doing research on the very absorbing subject of “the leaf,” preparatory to beginning my new body of work.


I have taken many photos. I have haunted the nearby park with my visual diary and I have brought home branches of trees that have fallen to the ground in windy weather (smallish) to study both their configuration and their leaves in more detail.



For a while there, my studio had a large pile of greenery sitting on the floor, while I slowly waded my way through it, examining and drawing each variation, magnifying glass at the ready. Being mainly Eucalypt branches the pile gave off a distinctive smell, which permeated the whole house and probably led guests to wonder what manner of strange people lived in this place. Never mind, it is all in the cause of art and I am used to people thinking that I am a little eccentric.




Anyway, I was amazed at the variety of patterns I discovered in the leaves and have now embarked on the new work, combining ideas from the patterns evident in microstructure to broader scale compositions of clusters of different leaf types.


                     (Images from visual diary: 1= casuarina, 2+3= eucalypt and 4= grevillea)