I made it! 30 Leaves in 30 Days!!!!!
As you know I have been exploring my new habitat here in Florida. I was on one of my leaf collecting hikes and came across a grove of Oak trees like none I had ever seen. They were tall and skinny and had the biggest leaves I have ever seen on an oak. In New Jersey there is a wide variety of oak trees and the leaves range in size from about 2 to maybe 5 inches. The oak leaves in this grove were 10 to 14 inches long. I have included a photograph with a ruler to show you that I am not pulling your leg!
This type of Oak is called the Turkey Oak. These deciduous leaves are simple and alternately arranged. The shape of each leaf usually has 5 lobes but may vary from 3 to 7. The leaves, with narrow lobes and deep sinuses, resemble a turkey foot. The top of each leaf is a yellow-green and paler below. On the bottom portion of the leaves, rusty-red colored hairs run along the veins. Each leaf possesses a small point at the tip. Turkey oak grows in dry sandy soils associated with longleaf pine, bluejack oak, and sand post oak. Here in Florida we have sand….. not much dirt.
I have been working on this leaf off and on for over 2 weeks. I did it life size. The finished piece is 14 x 18. I am teaching a class, "Pan Pastels, and Everything but the Kitchen Sink" this coming weekend so I have been practicing. I started by drawing the leaf and then painting it in an almost flat coat of yellow ochre gouache. I then used the Pan Pastels and began to sculpt the undulations in the leaf. I used colored pencils, granulating watercolors along with the PanPastels to come up with this painting.
This is the end of my 30 Day leaf Challenge.Thanks to all of you that were here to cheer me on. I will keep posting and I hope you continue to visit my blog!
This leaf is available for purchase in my Etsy Shop: BugsBeastsBotanicals
What a great looking leaf to finish off your series!
Really enjoyed seeing the variety of species you've found to work with this month.
Thanks Wren. I am glad you enjoyed the month!
Mindy, this is the King of leaves; Bellissimo.
BRAVA !!!!! no doubt you get to the end of this Challange.
My Challange it should have been called : One Leaf every 3days for all October: But I don't mind,I'm happy about it.
a lot of fun and new tip tested. Thanks for all Mindy, marvelleous friend !!!!
Renata, It is better to paint a leaf every 3 days than none at all! Thanks for spreading the word on twitter.
Hi Mindy,
I have really enjoyed seeing all your leaves, they are an impressive collection. I have been doing mine but they are certainly not as refined and I couldn't quite keep up so have still got some to do. Agree with Renata though, a lot of fun. Thanks Mindy
Thanks Jarnie! I am going to upload all of them to Flickr so you can see them as a group. WiIl do it sometime this week.