Monday, November 2, 2009

My Ostraka: Odyssey I: ii


A Meditation on Autumn Leaves

Monday, November 2, finally a brilliantly sunny day.
My dear neighbor Grace, a retired teacher just called me. She asked if she could 'play in the leaves' and rake my front yard. Mercy, what a welcomed gift. Teaching full time and carving out time to do my own painting does not leave much time for 'playing in the leaves,' so naturally I told Grace first that she was crazy and second, wonderful.

Autumn has always been my favorite season, the lush colors, sounds of leaves rustling, the crunch of dried twigs when walking in the woods-or even my back yard where I pick up twigs and pine cones for the fireplace, listening to the birds and rustling branches. I meditate while raking leaves, today being the first time ever I have a wonderful volunteer. The sun is so clear in autumn after the heady days of summer. As artists, we take in these subtleties.

In October and November 2006 I was a visiting professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, by invitation of artist/professor Xenis Sachinis who I met in Berlin at the Impact 4 conference. What a great guy Xenis is! He took me to Dion and Vergina, ancient Greek sites and I made watercolors and sketches. At Vergina, home to Philip II, father of Alexander the Great; I picked up six oak leaves. You can't pick up any stones, shards or bits of marble, but you can put these tiny oak leaves in your pocket. These tiny leaves have inspired a number of watercolors and hopefully in the future, some etchings. I wish I packed a whole bunch of leaves in my pockets, as I would like to use 'frottage' to make leaf impressions on some drawings.

These six leaves are so dear to me I have Xeroxed them and made template while the leaves themselves sit in a labeled plastic tub. Friend and fellow artist Brandy Larson, from grad school days in Madison, Wi, brought me back some leaves from Turkey when I told her about my plans. These leaves are not exactly the same, but they will add to the repertoire of fall leaves I will use.

I have one Alexander the Great with oak leaves finished, this one posted, with American oak leaves. The next two watercolors in progress feature the precious Vergina oak leaves. I now have at least five different kinds of oak leaves just from my yard, on campus and two exotic locales.

Who wouldn't use oak leaves in their art, what with their ancient associations?

1 comment:

Brandy Danu said...

I love the leaves in your painting!

You might make rubbings of them (more immediate than waiting to do the etchings, maybe use a photo process for that?) Use the side of a hard crayon, then watercolor over the crayon rubbings. Light crayon looks great with a darker wash over it - one of my favorite activities this time of year!