Yellow

I was invited to do a spread in a “newbies” altered book round robin on ANUK having acted as a mentor – not that the new members needed mentoring, nor from the results, would anyone think they were new to altered art – the spreads I have seen have all been really fabulous.   This spread is for Linda G.’s book, the theme of which was Yellow, sub-theme The Garden.   I started with a layer of textured paper which I then covered in gesso – I like the feel this gives to the page and also the fact that any paint layered on top can be worked in various ways.   Over this I then layered various bits and pieces, some cut out flowers and butterflies in thickish paper, some coloured strips of canvas and some real leaves.  I then put a layer of gesso over these as I did not like the design at all – perhaps one day I will learn to work things out first although I doubt it – I do tend to work spontaneously.  More paint over this layer of gesso over which I then did loads of leaf prints.   These were done by literally painting real leaves and using them to print with – there are many layers of these although the scan does not show the variance in colour very well.  I then applied several leaves which I had printed separately on paper and outlined, along with the butterfly.  Ta da:

Oh and the quote is by Van Gogh.