Every Year The Leaves Fall

Every year the leaves fall and I tell myself I should create some autumn-themed art and this year I managed to get it done. It started with a walk with my dogs. There is a path by my home and it becomes thick with maple leaves under my feet. I decided to collect a couple and bring them home with me. I chose one large leaf and two smaller leaves. Once home, I tore off some parchment paper and covered them with a heavy book. I left them to press for a couple of days to flatten and dry.

They’re dried!

It took a couple of days, but I finally achieved the result I was hoping for: the leaves were flattened and dry. At that point, I wasn’t entirely sure of the composition I had in mind, so I began to roughly trace the outline of the largest leaf. I started with the largest leaf because I knew I wanted to incorporate at least one sizable leaf in the final piece. Once traced it was time to collage it.

OOOH this was fun and finicky!

In preparing for this project I created in advance several colourful hand-painted abstract works on paper so I was able to start the tearing process right away. Tiny pieces of torn paper helped to create the colourful abstract leaf shown here. Once this was created I went through the same process for the smaller leaves.

Allll collaged and ready for placement.

After I had all the leaves collaged and cut out I took some time to play around with the placement. Once I thought I had decided where everything would go I left it overnight to revisit the next day. Turned out another leaf was needed to and so I got busy creating another leaf.

All the leaves in a stack is quite the colourful display.

I’ve never been one that defines a season strictly by colour and since I love bright colours these leaves are just that, colourful. Now that all the leaves have been created and the placement decided I got going on creating the backdrop of torn paper.

Creating this 20-inch collage was a time-consuming process, but the result was absolutely worth it. I love the textured effect, which reminds me of layers of leaves scattered on the ground. The playful, vibrant colors bring a lively energy to any space, especially on dreary days when they can really brighten up a room.

Behind Torn Garden Of Colour

I started and finished this painting in 2022, at least that’s what I thought. Several months ago, I decided to rework it and make it more cohesive with my current work using my hand-painted papers and collaging the flowers. Oh my goodness was this a project! It took a lot longer than I expected but it was super cool to see how the textures formed and how more depth was created.

Before the flowers appeared, I painted a brightly coloured abstract painting. The flowers were sketched out and the remaining background was painted with a wash of black so you can see glimpses of the under painting.

So, I got busy and painted several abstract works on paper and started tearing them up and adding the torn papers to each flower. I soon realized I needed more hand-painted papers to create the flowers and started painting more.

This image shows how it’s starting to transform. The bottom half was finished and I still had to tackle the top.

Just look at the texture

I love how each flower has transformed with texture and colours with all the layers of paper.

And… it’s finished! It took much longer than I thought it would but I finally got each flower collaged with layers of torn bits of hand-painted papers creating this playful and fun floral piece. I added bits of torn paper to the edges of this painting and a few more scratches into the black and I’ve declared it finished and ready to live on the walls in someone else’s home.