Leaf Print Trees

This project was really enjoyed by my students. They began by either placing their hand and forearm on the paper and having their carer draw round it, or by drawing around their carer's arm. After colouring in the silhouette with oil pastels they began adding leaves. I had brought in leaves in various shapes and sizes. I actually washed them before I gave them to my students because most of them really hate getting dirt on their hands and I thought the sight of a slug might really push them over the edge! I showed them how to place the leaves face down and paint the back with poster paint before pressing them onto the paper. A lot of my students have quite severe disabilities but pressing or patting something down onto paper is something that they can all do. I encouraged some of them to print some fallen leaves at the bottom of the picture too.

Ingrid Calame

I was through at the Edinburgh Festival last week and stumbled across an exhibition by New York artist Ingrid Calame. She makes art by tracing marks and stains she finds on the ground - sounds crazy but her drawings are really beautiful! She uses sheets of architectural Mylar (top quality tracing paper) to trace marks on the ground such as stains, cracks and graffiti which she takes back to her studio and re-traces using coloured pencils. She layers up the sheets of traced drawings to create what she calls a 'constellation', like the example above.
Tracing paper? Coloured pencils? I feel a workshop coming on......