Stamps on the Sidewalk

It's Sunday night and I'm sitting down with a tea. Seemed like a good quiet moment to try my hand at blogging again. It's something in between keeping a Facebook page for the stamps and a personal journal. Both are now pretty much habits for me. I find this a little confusing as it seems to be smack in the middle of both outlets. I'm interested in so many things - what do I "talk" about? How much do I share of myself? lol, I'm sure I'm over thinking it and one day I'll look back at this and smile at how shy and inexperienced I was ;)

My current idea is that I plan to write about anything to do with art. What inspires me visually, what creation I am dabbling with and of course anything stamp related.

So, that brings me to this blog post... It's been a beautiful Fall here in Southern Ontario this year. A gorgeous symphony of colour was in full force during the last couple of weeks and now the cold rain is helping the leaves to the ground.

I went for a walk one morning after the rain and found a surprise on the sidewalk. The colour had soaked out of the fallen leaves and had stained the fresh concrete beneath them. I couldn't help thinking that this was mother nature's version of stamping! I took WAY longer than expected to get to where I was going because I had my camera out and my nose to the ground the whole way!

Here are some of the pictures I took. I think the layering effect is just gorgeous! Along with the texture in the sidewalk and the muted colours they really remind me of mixed media paintings...

I moved this oak leaf aside to show the stain left beneath it

I couldn't believe how defined the edges of some of the leaves were! Some even had veining...

These cones are from an Alder Tree. I guess this effect isn't limited to leaves. These cones had more than enough pigment.

The horizontal texture in this photo was made by car tires. Even more layering!

Love the depth that was naturally created by some leaves staying put longer than others before they were brushed away by pedestrians or the wind.



My experiment at home...

 

After my walk I was inspired to see if I could create the same effect at home on watercolour paper. I used no extra ink - just some wet brown leaves that I had picked up on my walk. I soaked a piece of 140 pound water colour paper with a wet paper towel and did the same to the leaf. I then closed the book and put a heavy weight on top to keep the leaf pressed flat. This is the result! I moved the leaf so that it's imprint could be seen at the top.

I think next time I might soak the paper and secure it to a board while wet. This will minimize the paper warping from some areas being wetter than others.

That's it for now :) Hope you are enjoying the changing of the seasons as I am.
Ryn