This sample was great fun to do! What you’re seeing is the result of me placing a selection of leaves and flowers into a plastic bag against some cotton fabric, and then hammering the contents together against the garden tiles! Left to dry outside for a few hours, placed inside a heavy book for a day and then sealed with PVA glue and Voila! You have this wonderfully vibrant arrangement of natural colours and interesting subjects.
The buttercups, japanese acer leaves and mum’s geraniums gave the best and most saturated colours while (surprisingly) the red rose petals dried to a dull pale brown. The cherry tree leaf (top right) turned a dark brown and the purple you’re seeing is from a type of trumpet flower, although the flower itself disintegrated almot completely from the hammering.
I think it would be interesting to try and “paint” a picture using this technique. The details could be added in with acrylic but it would be nice to know the majority of the picture was colours from natural sources.
