| The other day I started experimenting with alternative | | | | flowers, twigs, bark, seeds, grasses, soil, anything and |
| art materials. There are so many ways to create | | | | everything. You will be surprised at the colors you get , |
| really original art. With a blank white piece a paper in | | | | the amounts of color contained in items, and it will be a |
| front of me there are no limits. | | | | step back into time. I was always intriqued by the very |
| I immediately went to the refrigerator. I used broccoli | | | | first airbrush paintings on the cave walls at Lascaux |
| scrubbed into the paper, then carrots, and beet juice. | | | | south western France, where pigments were blown |
| This led me to the spice cabinet where cous-cous | | | | thru a reed, and scrubbed on with mats of moss. |
| seasoning put out a powerful, and rich ochre | | | | These images were made of maganese and iron |
| color. Cinnamon was lovely and soft and worked well | | | | oxide and are over 17,000 years old. |
| for some shadowing effects. This was a fascinating | | | | There are so many options when considering painting |
| experiment in the intensity and amounts of natural dye | | | | with nature, you just have to give different elements a |
| in food and spice samples! | | | | try. |
| I then took my color search outside. To my surprise | | | | |
| the bright red geraniums that are outside my front | | | | "Fast food" |
| door, when squished and scrubbed into the paper | | | | 18x24 |
| I was working with turn an amazing dark purple. | | | | Broccoli, carrots, cinnamon, tree bark, cous-cous |
| Bouganvilla blossoms also a red variety turn a very | | | | seasoning, red geraniums, purple bouganvilla, curry |
| lovely... rasberry. I use some yummy tree bark to scrub | | | | powder, and a wierd green seed, on watercolor paper. |
| along side the bold colors to soften the transition of | | | | Art should not be comfortable, it should be something |
| colors. It works, as does a wierd green seed, for some | | | | of the unknown, a challenge. Artists need to reach, to |
| very defined green lines of direction. Kentucky blue | | | | explore, to inspire, and investigate..... opening new |
| grass scrubbed into paper leaves a soft chlorophyll | | | | frontiers in thought. |
| smudge to play with. | | | | Go out and touch something new today. |
| So, try something new with art. Go outside, collect | | | | |