Snail Nestled In Fallen Leaves

I love leaves. All sorts of leaves –  scarlet, yellow spring green, fallen leaves, skeleton leaves.  I do not like snails! Yet here I am featuring a snail in my art post. How did this happen?

I was in my garden having a quiet morning amble,  a little zen,  yoga, relaxation, enjoying  the refreshing cool change of weather.   But, then  I  accidentally let my mind slip  to next week’s class topic of Brown.

After that, all I could see everywhere, were lots of lovely objects in a plethora of browns.  Chocolate, honey, caramel, chestnut, bay, cream, mushroom, there were some of those too.    Curving Brown Leaf  – above –  captured my eye, so I thought its time to take some photos.

I found the blue green teal distant background paired fantastically well with the brown-orange of the leaf, and the sculptural quality of the leaf with its curves and curls was quite interesting.   The sandy neutral gray foreground  sets off the warmth of the leaf even further.    So I was telling myself as I was busy taking the shots.

So much for “zen” time.

Nestled  amongst the little bed of leaves was an empty snail shell that looked quite intriguing with its bands and patterns of honey, chestnut, cream and yummy caramel.   One would think I must be hungry, with all these food descriptions!

Its an odd theme for me, a snail… they’re  not my top pick of subjects at all.   They have a decidedly ‘icky’ factor to them for me.   The combination of the snail nestled in amongst the fallen leaves didn’t seem too disturbing to me though.  My dear ones might even venture to say something about being a ‘princess’  perhaps….I won’t inquire.

I told myself this was really about Wabi Sabi,  trying to see beauty in a common ordinary thing.   I think it worked!

Anyway,  my mind was still working on the Brown topic. Thinking about coming up with several Colour Mixing Recipes for all these brown colours I was seeing.

I’ve listed a few for you to experiment with if you’d like to give it go.

• quinacridone sienna + winsor lemon
• burnt sienna +  permanent rose
• burnt umber + french ultramarine blue
• cerulean blue + burnt umber
• winsor lemon/permanent rose mix  + cobalt
• indigo + burnt umber
• lunar earth + burnt umber
• lunar earth + azo yellow
• permanent alizarin crimson + ultramarine + burnt sienna
• indigo + permanent alizarin crimson + azo yellow
• cerulean + light red + burnt umber

I will  “zen”  tomorrow.