September 20, 2015

Words from the Woods – Trying Something New

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

This morning drove down to the library to finish and post blogs. I am trying hard to update the blog every few days, though sometimes I don’t want to leave camp. I do enjoy writing about this wonderful experience and want to make sure I capture it with words and pictures.

I identified a few more tree species today and then gathered supplies for this afternoon’s project. When I put together the plan for my stay at Catoctin, it included goals, three of which involved trying new art processes. I set aside time this afternoon for the first.

Working in my outdoor studio (picnic table):

In this project I used bleach solution and dark brown paper. The book I saw this method in called for black paper, but I wanted to try brown for an autumnal effect. All set up on the picnic table with a spray bottle of bleach solution, the brown paper, newspaper, a tub of vinegar and water solution (to neutralize the bleaching action, and a tub of water for rinsing. I collected leaves from the ground around my workspace and used those in various arrangements. I alternated spraying the leaves before placing them on the paper and laying the leaves down, then spraying. Earlier, I had explained this method to one of the rangers and now was so excited with the results that I walked down to the office to show him some prints. *See photos. A few of these will be in the Catoctin Mountain Park/Forest Alliance journal.