Leaf Awareness

I have of late often received the counsel to look closely at leaves. It came up in a few ASBA Conference presentations and again in my botanical class. The class was visited by a few waves of visiting children and Sarah did a fine job of raising awareness on the diversity of leaves. More that once a kid hung out to my side, asking a few questions. My question back was "Hey, you must be an artist?" The answer was always yes. We'd then get down to tool talk--media, subjects, etc...

Leaf awareness came back to me today while shopping in the produce section. All the colors! Kale's blue-green and celery's yellow-green. Beets, lettuces, collards, and on it goes. A flurry of blurred greens fading one into the other.

And while lugging my groceries indoors I was again caught up with fallen leaves--oaks and maples and crabapples and all those I still can't identify! Like the examples below, I am scanning leaves for subjects for when the snow is flying. This one might make it into egg tempera and oils.

Scan cover down to flatten leaf for detail.

Scan cover up to capture dimensionality.