Journal 52, Week 48: Grid Inspired

For Week 48 of Journal 52, Chelle asked us to create grids.

Although these are grid inspired leaves, I'm actually calling this "Homage to Susi."  All month I've watched as Susi made some incredible leaves to go with her art.  I wanted to try, but I wasn't sure I could pull it off.

I began by laying down layer after layer of paint.  I started with Payne's gray, then blue, then beige, then maroon.  By alternating light with dark, I hoped to get some depth.    Then I sectioned off the areas and painted grids in various autumn inspired colors.  For that reason, I'm joining Art Journal Journey, where Susi is this month's host.

For the leaves, I painted an old telephone book page with the same colors I used for the grid. 

As the leaves got closer to the bottom of the grid, the green outline colors changed from light to dark.

I nearly forgot the week number again, so made sure I used one of the ink pens to show the week.  And because I used several layers of paint on the substrate and the leaves, I'm also entering this in Moo-Mania and More's Lots of Layers challenge.

One final look shows my substrate was a used file folder that I painted several layers of acrylics, then I added the grid pattern.  The leaves were made from a telephone book page, acrylic paint, and various green markers.

Some of you requested that I show my decorations I put out on Friday.

This is a sneak peek

showing a few of the trees I used this year.  I usually put my regular decorations away, but this year, I only put four things away.  I was just not in the spirit to pack everything away, then get it back out the day after Christmas.  Maybe it was because of AEDM, or maybe I'm still not fully recovered from my wrist problem (although my shoulder is no longer hurting), but I really abbreviated my decorating this year.

From my living room window, you can see the tree that sits on the desk outside.

Although I took all these photos one right after the other, I was surprised how the lighting changed depending on where I stood.  Although it looks like my ceiling is dirty, that is truly just the lighting (or lack thereof).

All photos were taken without an overhead light in any of the rooms.  The only lights you see are the tiny night lights that sit all over the house.  I'll share close-ups of these and other rooms the first part of December.

Don't forget to visit Moo-Mania and More, where their challenge is Lots of Layers, and Art Journal Journey, whose theme for November is Inspired by Autumn Colors.  Of course, this post is also meant for Week 48 of Journal 52 and Day 29 of Art Every Day Month, or AEDM.

As always, I am very grateful for your kind remarks and wonderful insight into my art.  That and my loyal readers are two of the reasons I blog.