My Love of Nature

I was looking for inspiration this weekend and I discovered these wonderful paper strip collages by Darlene Maciuba-Koppel in Art Journaling Magazine by Somerset Studio.  You may want to check out her blog: cinnamonpink.typepad.com

From her inspiration, I created this paper collage:

It says, “Keep your love of nature – for that is the true way to understand art.”

I started with a print I made several years ago using gelatin as a printing plate, (this was before the Gelli-Plate) and a variety of leaves, etc from the lake:

The above is a sampling of some I had made.  I decided to choose the one on the right and cut into strips using a paper cutter.

I used Matte Medium to glue my painted strips to 140 lb cold press paper.  In between these strips, I used pages from an old book on flowers.

I sandwiched my glued collage between wax paper and used a stack of old dictionaries to help it lie flat while it dried.

I then wrote the quote about nature I found on the internet.  I added a couple of rubber stamps – a feather and a tree.  I doodled the rest with a black pen – using the plants in my yard as inspiration, such as a blueberry bush:

My assistant, Jack helped me – here he is showing off for the camera:

A Daylily in bloom:

And Coral Bells – but my assistant got his tail in the way:

May you find inspiration from nature today!

Happy Creating!  🙂