It's warming up now, summer is on it's way and I'm becoming enamored of imperfect leaves. I used to look out for the most perfect I could find, but now it's the slightly tatty ones that I'm drawn to. It's the colours that do it, when I see one caught in a shaft of morning sunlight and it seems to glow, I just can't help myself and I have to pick it up. I'm a terrible picker-upper, I spend a lot of my time during walks with my head down, eyes to the ground...so leaves, rocks, feathers, or shells and bits of driftwood at the beach, invariably get picked up and brought home. I was very tempted a couple years ago to bring home a completely dehydrated Leather Jacket (a type of fish, not an article of clothing!) I found on the beach. My beloved put his foot down on that one, probably just as well, seeing as the previous beach finds, a bunch of sponges that I'd brought home, had somehow been forgotten and spent the next couple of weeks stuck under one of the car seats. It took him a while to find where the smell was coming from...and a while longer for the smell to dissipate! So I drew a picture of it instead. It was rather fun, one of those pieces that you start but you don't know where it's going till you get there. It began as a series of bits of paper torn from an unmemorable book and glued to a larger sheet, which were then covered in a kind of scribbled journal entry, and then the fish over the top. On reflection, probably a much better memento to bring home than the fish itself.
It's warming up now, summer is on it's way and I'm becoming enamored of imperfect leaves. I used to look out for the most perfect I could find, but now it's the slightly tatty ones that I'm drawn to. It's the colours that do it, when I see one caught in a shaft of morning sunlight and it seems to glow, I just can't help myself and I have to pick it up. I'm a terrible picker-upper, I spend a lot of my time during walks with my head down, eyes to the ground...so leaves, rocks, feathers, or shells and bits of driftwood at the beach, invariably get picked up and brought home. I was very tempted a couple years ago to bring home a completely dehydrated Leather Jacket (a type of fish, not an article of clothing!) I found on the beach. My beloved put his foot down on that one, probably just as well, seeing as the previous beach finds, a bunch of sponges that I'd brought home, had somehow been forgotten and spent the next couple of weeks stuck under one of the car seats. It took him a while to find where the smell was coming from...and a while longer for the smell to dissipate! So I drew a picture of it instead. It was rather fun, one of those pieces that you start but you don't know where it's going till you get there. It began as a series of bits of paper torn from an unmemorable book and glued to a larger sheet, which were then covered in a kind of scribbled journal entry, and then the fish over the top. On reflection, probably a much better memento to bring home than the fish itself.
7 comments:
Hi, beautiful drawing! I really like your blog. Why is the fish called Leather Jacket?:)
a picker upper is a great thing to be! my studio is stuffed with "finds", now i just need to find things to do with all the bits & bobs. Love the tatty leaves, autumn colours are my favourites. We are leaving summer far behind here & in for a long wet winter i think, sighs *ruthie
there's someone across the ditch who prints from fish....
Em-illi...I have no idea, I guess they have a rather tough skin! Ruthie, I love Autumn, and Autumn colours too. These are gum leaves, which are not deciduous, so they drop all year round...one of my dreams is to one day experience a REAL Autumn, when all the leaves fall...I blame all those books I read as a child, steeped in the countryside of Britain and Europe! Sometimes it's hard to reconcile the stories of my ancestors' culture with the land I was born in. Hmm...I feel another post coming on. INdi, I think I've heard of that, I think I've read that it's a traditional Japanese artform?
Gorgeously perfect, imperfect leaves. I smiled at your sponge story - I had a similar experience with some seaweed once... and that smell's still imprinted on my brain. But it hasn't stopped me being a picker-upper either :)
Your art is lovely!
beautiful in their own way. Aren't the colours of fallen gum leaves wonderous this year? I'm collecting them and photographing them for mosaic ideas.
herhimnbryn...yes, they are glorious and would make a stunning mosaic, can't wait to see what you come up with!
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