"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home" (Twyla Tharp)

SBA Diploma Distance Course - Leaf Page


After spending time playing with colour charts and learning more about how the colours interact I spent a lot of time sourcing leaves for the third assignment for the Society of Botanical Artists Diploma Course.  I am finding the planning stage the most difficult part of these assignments as there is so much observation and contemplation required before even getting started.




 The third assignment called for a page of eight leaves - at least six primarily green, two coloured and one of the leaves was to be a monocotyledon.







I decided to choose the monocot first and although there were many typical examples available I chose the Spathiphyllum due to its graceful curve and wonderful opportunity to show tonal contrast in the veins.

I found it difficult to go straight into painting the leaf so I made a line drawing with tonal contrasts as a guide to assist me.  Once I was happy with the position and colours I then moved on to composing the rest of the leaves.   This consisted of trials with each leaf to ensure I was happy to continue on to the final piece.

Once I had more than a few leaves on the final page it was quite nerve wracking.
As I started each new one - I realised that  there was no chance to begin all over again if I wasn't happy with the final result.  It had taken too long to get to this point and I needed to commit.  I saw that the composition was a little lop-sided so I added a few leaves to balance.


My final page consisted of - from top left clockwise - Senecio rowleyanus - String of Pearls, Spathiphyllum - Peace Lily, Alyogyne 'Delightfully Double', Liquidambar styraciflua 'Oakville Highlight', Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem', Hoya carnosa 'Variegata', Eucalyptus wandoo 'Wandoo', Codiaeum variegatum - Croton, Hibiscus tiliaceus 'Rubra'.


© Vicki Lee Johnston



My photographs are not ideal - I was going to take a better quality pic once the assignment returned - however my tutor advised me that my page of leaves had arrived quite battered and that the flyweight was broken and the artwork creased down the page.  It has a long way to travel from Western Australia to the UK so I guess this is one of the downfalls of distance learning.  I really enjoyed the page of leaves but I am very keen to start using a rainbow of colours again!

Watercolour Painting and Colour Charts ...




 Prior to the SBA Distance Course I have only worked with a limited watercolour palette of six colours .... Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Lemon, Cerulean Blue, French Ultramarine, Cadmium Red and Permanent Rose.
























 The first watercolour painting I ever did was to complete a set of colour charts using only these six pigments - and blending them to produce colour variations.  You can see the colours on each side of the page before gradually mixing them to provide different hues.
I also diluted these blends which shows in the small boxes underneath indicating when more water was added and the resulting paler shades.





   I ended up with over 400 versions of these colours from only six - it  taught me a lot about colour mixing and the water to pigment ratios.


Working on the third assignment for the SBA Distance Course - a page of leaves - meant I had to learn more about colour - specifically greens.  With  advice and suggestions from the Botanical Artists Forum I bought a few more tubes to add to my collection of paints. I started mixing the colours again to see how many greens I would have available and how the colours interacted with each other.   I found it so helpful  to become familiar with the colours and these charts are now a constant source of reference.



Playing with mixing greens ...

Photographing Artwork ... Hydrangea

© Vicki Lee Johnston


I posted the story of my Hydrangea artwork back in January,see the post here.   At the time the painting had already been framed to give to my Mum for Christmas and I could only take a photograph according to the conditions I was presented with - being no flash and behind glass!!  Quite tricky....you will see the result above which I think is still quite nice, however has quite a sepia quality to it ....

© Vicki Lee Johnston

A good friend offered to take a decent photograph of the artwork, so after getting the painting back from my Mum and removing it from the frame and surrounds, he utilised the natural daylight and best aspect for photographing true colours.  
This has not been worked on in Photoshop except for whiting the background,  but you can see already the diffference in colour and tone.  There are a lot of issues with reproducing artwork in a true representation.  You can see from this example a vast difference between the colours!  I am yet to look into scanning artwork - there is so much more to the art journey than just paint and paper!

Autumn Leaves ....


It's that time of year when the landscape changes - the deciduous trees change colours and create a rainbow of hues to enjoy.   This is a photo of our beautiful Chinese Tallow starting to turn.
 I remember my  father used to complain about leaves on the ground - always making a mess and having to rake them up.  He said that was why he didn't want deciduous trees on his property, settling for the less changeable evergreen varieties.
 
I am currently working on a page of leaves for the SBA assignment and have never been more aware of their shape, colour, texture, form, etc.  My mother knew I was working on this leaf assignment and visited me recently and handed me an old tin filled with leaves.  My Dad had collected and painstakingly varnished each and every leaf, hundreds of them!  So this from the man who bemoaned the mess that the leaves made .... I opened the tin and laid them all out randomly on a big white board and stepped back.  It was a beautiful display, so I had to share them with you, a work of art in itself.   Dad was a retired farmer and while he would have his gripes about various aspects of nature - he was always one to take notice of things - no matter how small.

How lucky I am to have this precious tin of leaves - he was the last one to touch them ... it's like he is with me while I'm working.  It seems he had a quiet place on his own where he too was fascinated by nature.


Autumn  setting in ....

From time to time I wander out
To see the changing tones
Marvel at the sea of hues
And how it leaves my home

I often think of what he saw
And why he stopped at all
To keep them in a special place
He must have  loved the fall

Miss you Dad xxx