Autumn as a mosaic of color

October 13, 2014 by aintnoninny 2 Comments

At journal52.com we are in week 41 (out of 52).  That means it is Autumn and there are only 11 weeks left in the year.  Sigh.

The prompt this week is “Mosiac Inspired”.  I love mosaics.  I’ve played with and designed mosaics since I was 9 years old and got a mosaic tile kit for Christmas.  I spent hours that year rearranging those tiles into all sorts of designs, never gluing them down to the pre-fab poster board ‘painting’ they were intended for.

I decided to mix Autumn, my favorite time of year, and ‘mosaic-inspired’ into a two-page art journal spread.  “Inspired” is definitive, since not everything was done as mosaic.

This landscape was created with gelatin monoprints, coffee filters that I had cleaned off my brush on, and a bit of printed and textured papers from my stash. The background on both pages was done using Dervan Matisse background paints which are very matte, like colored primers,  so as to let the papers glued to it ‘shine’.

The sun was created mosaic-style, in a spiral, using gelatin monoprints in warm and cool Autumn colors.

The outline of a tree was stenciled over the caramel/beige background paint in a matte burgundy. I wiped away the burgundy paint around the edges with a baby wipe to allow the goldish colors to show through.  The papers added as branches and leaves were cut from my own gelatin monoprints or text/texture papers I had in my stash.  The ‘grass’ is white coffee filters that I had used to clean off my paint brushes from other projects. The day before I started this spread I received, free, some gold leaf embellishments with a rubber stamp order.  I glued the leaves down over the papers to add a little metallic ‘bling’.

The text seemed perfect for the spread.

I’m really proud of the final spread. I love the colorful autumnal look of the pages. It took me a few hours every day for three days to design, paint, dry, cut, and collage everything to create the spread.  I was so excited to finish that some of the photos still show the gel medium I used as glue. My fingers may never be free of gel medium, coated as they are!

It’s a beautiful Autumn day today and I’m proud to say I’ve used part of it to create.  I hope you are inspired to create today too!