Gum Leaves
This weeks drawing board has a few ideas for a new series of gum leaf paintings.
Top row: Sweet Peas – small sketchbook open at a page with a test piece for a large watercolour painting I’m planning of sweet peas. I’ve tried three approaches to the painting in my sketchbook (see below).
Gum tree leaf colour swatches, freshly found gum leaves pasted with PVA onto card for colour reference, and a close observation watercolour of a gum leaf in a small sketchbook (top right).
My next few paintings will be about gum leaves, its Autumn here in Melbourne, and I think although not deciduous, we get more windfalls and dropped leaves at this time of year from the gums. I’ve collected a whole bagful on my walks and plan to turn them into a few different works including watercolours, pattern designs and a larger acrylic painting.
Bottom row: An inked up picture ready for colour to be applied, this is part of my Palm House series of tropical paintings, I start by stretching the paper, then draw my sketch on in pencil, then ink it using a fountain pen and waterproof ink, and finally add watercolour washes. Saltbush – a nearly complete painting of saltbush flowers with Port Phillip Bay in the background, I just need to paint in a few more flowers top left and I can release it from the board. A mock up of an idea I have for a gum tree acrylic painting, I scanned my watercolour leaf painting (above) and then repeated it over a pale blue and yellow watercolour background (one of many stock backgrounds I have created). Calico fabric sample with a drawn monstera leaf, coloured with Inktense pencil and quilted and decorated with free motion embroidery – this is an idea I have for a much larger work. Bottom right – my usual Winsor&Newton box of paints.