How do you have accidental art?
A couple of years ago while holidaying on Moreton Island in Queensland, I found some lovely large flat leaves in the garden. I painted some scenes on them and eventually consigned them to my art folder.
Last year, I was working with a student during lunch time and a few of the Year 5 girls were looking through my art folder and came across the leaf paintings. I was busy and distracted at the time and subsequently wasn’t really listening when one of the girls asked me a question.
My answer was “Yes, I’m sure that would be fine.” And I waved them away. About five minutes later, I had leaves landing in front of me on the table and instructions for what the children wanted painted on their leaves.
Their question had been, “If we find some leaves, would you paint a picture on them for us.” I ended up painting about a dozen leaves for the children.
The moral of this story could be – Always listen to children before answering them!
But my moral for this has turned out to be – Sometimes happy accidents happen!
I enjoyed painting on the leaves and I improved my technique with each one I did. Now that I have my studio set up, I have continued to paint on gum leaves and liquid amber leaves.
Now here is where the second part of the happy accident happened.
The little one teacher school at Rockley, where my children started their schooling had their 150th Anniversary on the 6th of November. One of my friends from Rockley was organising the event and asked me if I would like to set up a market stall.
A couple of years ago while holidaying on Moreton Island in Queensland, I found some lovely large flat leaves in the garden. I painted some scenes on them and eventually consigned them to my art folder.
Last year, I was working with a student during lunch time and a few of the Year 5 girls were looking through my art folder and came across the leaf paintings. I was busy and distracted at the time and subsequently wasn’t really listening when one of the girls asked me a question.
My answer was “Yes, I’m sure that would be fine.” And I waved them away. About five minutes later, I had leaves landing in front of me on the table and instructions for what the children wanted painted on their leaves.
Their question had been, “If we find some leaves, would you paint a picture on them for us.” I ended up painting about a dozen leaves for the children.
The moral of this story could be – Always listen to children before answering them!But my moral for this has turned out to be – Sometimes happy accidents happen!
I enjoyed painting on the leaves and I improved my technique with each one I did. Now that I have my studio set up, I have continued to paint on gum leaves and liquid amber leaves.
Now here is where the second part of the happy accident happened.
The little one teacher school at Rockley, where my children started their schooling had their 150th Anniversary on the 6th of November. One of my friends from Rockley was organising the event and asked me if I would like to set up a market stall.
I framed up the leaves I had on hand and made some postcard prints and bookmarks of the artwork. I only sold one painting on the day but received two commissions for specific subjects. (A frog similar to the one I sold earlier in the day – frogs are in, I could have sold that leaf three times on the day – and a scene from the Tarana Valley, as a gift for a Canadian teacher who has been on a work exchange.)
Since that weekend, I have sold two more of the leaf paintings and have commissions for six more at $55.00 each.
I think I may have set the price too low!
