Tis The Season
Now and again, I like to offer a small sale on my original art. In the art world, they say you shouldn’t offer sales, but I am in my own world, and in this world, this world is costly! So, with that said, use code TISTHESEASON to save 20% on orders over $100.
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, covered them with a heavy book leaving them over them to flatten and dry.
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 The Tropical Oasis Art
My newest art, Tropical Oasis, started because my daughter had decided to create art for her new home. She had mixed up some colours to make this tropical green colour that reminded me of the waters in a tropical location. She had created too much of this particular colour and asked me if I could use it. Of course, I could and not only did I use her remaining paint but I created some more, resulting in two dreamy abstracts on paper. I couldn’t wait to tear these up to create on my brand new blank 24 x 24 inch wood panel staring at me.
With each tear of these two pieces, I was thinking of tropical waters and the warmth compared to the Pacific Ocean. There is something about stepping into tropical waters. Mixing white watercolour paper with the torn abstracts on paper is a way to create more texture as the watercolour paper is thicker and, depending on the side of the paper I used one has a visible texture to it while the other is smooth.
The following images are the final abstract paintings I created before I tore them up.
This next photo is just after I started and I noticed my brush matched my palette.
The one thing I don’t talk about too often is just how much I love creating textures for the corners of my art. Oh, how I love it!! Building those corners is my favourite and fills me with such joy! I start each piece I create on a corner and once I start, I lose myself in the process.
Below is a close-up view of the bottom corner before I finished this piece by painting all the edges black and wiring it up!
To see the listing for this artwork, it can be found here: https://www.kathleentennant.com/original-mixed-media-collage-artwork-kathleen-tennant/p/tropical-oasis-original-mixed-media-collage-abstract-painting
