I immediately went to the refrigerator. I used broccoli scrubbed into the paper, then carrots, and beet juice. This led me to the spice cabinet where cous-cous seasoning put out a powerful, and rich ochre color. Cinnamon was lovely and soft and worked well for some shadowing effects. This was a fascinating experiment in the intensity and amounts of natural dye in food and spice samples!
I then took my color search outside. To my surprise the bright red geraniums that are outside my front door, when squished and scrubbed into the paper I was working with turn an amazing dark purple. Bouganvilla blossoms also a red variety turn a very lovely... rasberry. I use some yummy tree bark to scrub along side the bold colors to soften the transition of colors. It works, as does a wierd green seed, for some very defined green lines of direction. Kentucky blue grass scrubbed into paper leaves a soft chlorophyll smudge to play with.
So, try something new with art. Go outside, collect flowers, twigs, bark, seeds, grasses, soil, anything and everything. You will be surprised at the colors you get , the amounts of color contained in items, and it will be a step back into time. I was always intriqued by the very first airbrush paintings on the cave walls at Lascaux south western France, where pigments were blown thru a reed, and scrubbed on with mats of moss. These images were made of maganese and iron oxide and are over 17,000 years old.
There are so many options when considering painting with nature, you just have to give different elements a try.
Broccoli, carrots, cinnamon, tree bark, cous-cous seasoning, red geraniums, purple bouganvilla, curry powder, and a wierd green seed, on watercolor paper.
Art should not be comfortable, it should be something of the unknown, a challenge. Artists need to reach, to explore, to inspire, and investigate..... opening new frontiers in thought.
Go out and touch something new today.
Deb Haugen is a Malibu, California artist. Tagged the "Organic Artist" because of the content of her work. After 30 years of painting "My main focus is currently my organic art series inspired by the creek bed and horse trails I walk daily. Organic art is essential, vital, and rudimentary, it is all around us" Deb Haugen's artwork is in private collections in the US, Germany, Spain and Japan. http://www.theorganicartist.com
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