Experimenting with leaves for Placidus

The Vision of Placidus is going to be a large panel – I think about five feet by four – and the story is set in a forest. So I’m going to need some trees, trunks and foliage, as well as some sort of distant scene and a rock for the stag to stand on.

I’m not at all sure how I’m going to render the forest, but after all, improvisation and exploration have become very important parts of what I do and how I do it. So, here I am, Exploring!

I was wandering in the Lady Lever Art Gallery recently, and strolling through the dimly lit rooms that house the Mortlake tapestries gave me my first idea. The differential fading of the natural dyes used often leaves darker greens much more blue than green, so I have thought, for my first experiment, to take a sheet of green felt, draw oak leaves on it – freehand – and work across in blue, making all the central elements of the leaves stronger.

I think if I like the effect I will need to rework it in wool, perhaps with some overworking from the embellisher, to blend the colours and layers together.

I’ve made a start, and at the moment I am unconvinced. We’ve heard that before, of course. I’ll keep going, see what I think with a whole sheet of these leaves done and cut out and laid over one another.

I still like the idea of referencing the tapestries. I maybe have to find another couple of ways of doing it.