Before you read on, this is a perfectly awful photograph of a really pretty painting! The colors flow together and are layered one on top of another to create new colors. The overall effect is NOT the hots and the red colors you see here, but a nice balance of warm and cool colors. The prominent leaf is gold pigment which sits on top of the other paints in relief.
This piece is about 20" x 30". What you can't see is the amount of depth that shows up when you view it in person. I use a combination of different types of inks, some recede and others step forward, so you have visual interest and can see through the top layers down to the bottom layers.
I named this one 'Leaf Abstract,' because it's built up of layers of bright colors upon which I printed leaves from my root beer plant, which I grow in our back yard. The plant grows to about six feet, yields leaves which are about 15" long, and they actually do smell like root beer when you crush them! Like! The leaves are stiff with really prominent veins which lend themselves nicely to prints.
As I like bright, unsullied colors, I've got a lot of colors laid down in this painting. During the process, I'm layering, lifting, spattering, moving and texturing, among other things. Once I've got the under layers of the painting finished and completely dry, I brush the inks directly onto the leaf and print onto the YUPO. Generally speaking, I'll make a print on a pretty thirsty paper first, THEN on the YUPO. Doing a second printing with one inking is called making a ghost. As YUPO, which is polyeurethene, is absolutely non-absorbant, I almost always do a ghost.
Once I've got my leaf ink pattern laid down, I'll often use powdered gold pigment over specific areas. I fill a fan brush with the powder and dust it quickly over the wet ink by tapping on my brush while I hold it above the painting. It's pretty tricky getting it to obey me and land exactly where I want it, and I won't even know if the painting turned out until it's dry and I can brush off the extra gold pigment. All this to say, I end up doing a lot of paintings before I come up with one I like. I like this one a lot, and I'm glad someone else did, too! :)
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