Leaf Collector

I have loved leaves as long as I can remember. Although I admire them throughout the seasons, autumn leaves capture my heart.  Whenever I walk with Meeko, I bring a handful of leaves home. So over a few weeks, my collection grows and grows.

Sometimes you can find leaves that are already perfectly dried on the ground and they will retain their shape. If leaves are still humid, they will curl up when left to dry on their own. This year, I figured out that if I placed light twigs on the top of a small pile of leaves, they dried in a very nice natural way. Previously, I've tried drying them by weighing them down with books but then you end up with leaves that are as flat as pancakes and you lose their lovely contours and curves. When I was in elementary school, I can remember that we used to iron them between two pieces of wax paper. Supposedly, they will retain their colour longer than way but they are, of course, completely flat. I prefer having some contour and curls.

When I return from walks, I tend to put the leaves I've collected in our dining room as I like to look at them. After a few weeks, the side table starts to look a bit like a display in a nature museum. A few days ago, I collected all my dried leaves into a box and brought them up to my studio. I couldn't resist arranging them by type and colour.

Last year, I bought a clear glass vase for my painting table and I now display some of my leaf collection in it, refreshing the leaves each autumn.

And I guess it will not come as a surprise that I painted some leaves too! Last November, I painted two maples leaves and a maple key. I thought the painting was finished at the time but it didn't feel quite right and I put it in my painting drawer. 

This week, I added a curled leaf and maple key to the painting and the composition feels much better! I also added more colour and details to everything. The first photo below was taken yesterday. The second was taken at the end of the day today. I think it's finished now although I always take the time to stare at a painting for a while to know for sure.

The finished painting today

An excerpt from 'The Autumn' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Go, sit upon the lofty hill,

And turn your eyes around,

Where waving woods and waters wild

Do hymn an autumn sound.

The summer sun is faint on them —

The summer flowers depart —

Sit still — as all transform’d to stone,

Except your musing heart.

How there you sat in summer-time,

May yet be in your mind;

And how you heard the green woods sing

Beneath the freshening wind.

Though the same wind now blows around,

You would its blast recall;

For every breath that stirs the trees,

Doth cause a leaf to fall.

Perfect soundtrack: Nick Drake 'Five Leaves Left'

❤  ❤  ❤  ❤  ❤

Painting Goodbye to Autumn

A few weeks ago, I started a painting of two maple leaves and a key. When I went back to work on it yesterday, I found that the leaves had curled up in my absence. I don't blame them. Autumn naps are lovely.

Curly or not, they had still retained enough colour to use them as references. I put the final touches on my painting this morning.

I love painting leaves so much. They are like tiny quilts full of different colours and textures. I love the challenge of trying to replicate all of the hues, veins and crinkles.

I have tried a lot of different watercolour papers in the past couple of years. For this painting, I went back to a paper I used to use quite often: Saunders Waterford 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. I had forgotten how nice it was to work with.

A detail from my painting

It is freezing cold here right now. Time for scarves, boots and gloves. I always hold out until the very last moment for hats. :) We have had snowflakes in the air but not on the ground so far. There's a small reprieve from the wintry weather ahead though. Temperatures are supposed to be quite mild over the weekend, so I have lucked out as far as weather for planting bulbs goes. Good thing too as I have over 300 of them to plant. We have to put our garden furniture away too.

Here are some photos from Instagram (a work-in-progress photo, a leaf collection from a walk and the finished painting):

I'll leave you with a photo of my studio assistant this morning. He'll have you know that inspiring someone as they paint autumn leaves is exhausting work!

Leaf Lover

Some people are tree huggers. I am most definitely a leaf lover. Here's a grouping of leaf paintings from the past year. I love painting them so much.

It's hard to take group shots of paintings and get the lighting right on all of them. The burgundy leaf in the back is showing much darker than it is. Kind of like taking a family photo. There's always someone with an odd look on their face (usually me).

My love of trees and leaves goes WAY back. In grade five, I participated in the 'Tree Bee'. This was a Toronto-wide tree identification contest for elementary school children. Our team didn't win but we were runners-up. To this day, I am pretty good at identifying trees although I won't pretend that all of my grade 5 knowledge has stayed with me.

My stash of elementary school badges in a lovely sweetgrass basket my Mom gave me when I was a little girl.

There seems to be good energy surrounding my painting efforts these days. Someone who saw my prints at the craft show I did recently is coming to my studio next week to look at originals. That means I need to get my studio cleaned up! It's good to have the motivation as I am famous for putting it off. I'll post a photo of it for sure. I also have been commissioned by someone who found my work online to do a flower painting as a Christmas gift. Another lovely opportunity.

With the recent interest in my originals, I have found the motivation to put some of them in my Etsy shop for the first time. Up until now, I've only had prints and cards there. I'll be adding more in the weeks ahead.

I used to sell a lot of originals in the days when I was doing trade shows with my Florescence card line.  I often would decorate my booth with framed paintings and fresh flowers. Shop owners would ask about buying the originals for themselves or they would ask if they could sell them on consignment in their shops. Original paintings of mine are in homes in Canada and the United States. But, I guess because I didn't paint for a long time, I'm having extra trouble letting go of them recently. I get so attached to them! It makes so much more sense for them to be loved and appreciated somewhere and not just live in a drawer in my studio. Lots of thinking lately.

Since we're on a leaf theme, I'll close with a sweet gift that Emma picked up for me on the way home from school today. The yellow maple leaf actually fell right onto her as she walked, so it was begging to come with her. Then she found the little snail that looks like it was made for the leaf.  Maybe another painting?

Pumpkin and Maple Leaves

It was a long weekend in Canada for our Thanksgiving holiday.  I worked for almost all of it on my arts and crafts show that I need to make a delivery to on Wednesday. You'd think I would learn. I have participated in this show for 18 years. I have missed part of every Thanksgiving weekend during all those years because of last-minute preparations for the show. No matter what I have prepared, I always think I can add a little more. Trust me, I'm not that much fun to be around on Thanksgiving.

But I am really happy with what I have prepared. I have new cards and new framed prints of my work. I am particularly happy with some small framed prints I did this weekend.  I am not finished. Tomorrow will be a very long day, but I knew I needed to do something today to make me and my family feel a little more like it was Thanksgiving. So I extracted myself from the computer and show preparations at 5:00 p.m. and made a pumpkin pie. It was delicious. We ate it warm with whipped cream. Definitely something to feel thankful for.

Chloé arranged the table for dinner. The 'martini' in the background is cranberry juice with a blackberry floating in it.

My 'Maple Leaves' print had an exciting weekend. It was featured on Etsy's Facebook page on Saturday and was posted on their Twitter feed on Sunday. What a thrill.  A tear-worthy thrill.

I added a Maple Leaves card to my shop this weekend.
It's one of the cards I've created for the arts and crafts show coming up next weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

(In the photo at the very top: my pumpkin pie, a pumpkin bought from a local charity drive, cinnamon sticks and a Bookhou tea towel.)