playing with my gelli plate

I always have great plans at half term - catching up on schoolwork, catching up on housework, planning out new ideas for the classroom, decorating in the house, clearing out, gardening (getting those spring bulbs in)....

In reality I actually just needed a really good rest and after sleeping a lot and catching up with friends I made myself play with my paints and gelli plate on Friday morning - play is rest too, and is VeRy good for you!

The colours this autumn have been amazing.  I've done a lot of driving through the Cheshire countryside this week, being Mum's taxi for my son who was doing some work experience with a farrier - the drive has been a real treat to just soak in the amazing colours of the leaves.

So I took the leaves and autumn colours for inspiration as I played.

I brayered Dina Wakley's acrylic paints onto the gelli plate, pressed down some stencils then laid down a leaf before taking the print.  These just shout out for some zen doodling inside the leaf shape!

Removing the leaf and taking a second print is actually my favourite result though :)

I had a bit of play with other colourways too.  I love black and white backgrounds with added colour so look forward to adapting this piece.  The paints used are  'night' combined with 'umber'.

Some of the leaves are still green 

which makes a nice combo with oranges, yellows and browns.

I then chose to play with my little 3" x 5" gelli plate, exploring the use of dark blue

trying out new colourways such as yellow ochre and grey

and layering colours into my little journal, ready for some imagery

By the end of all this playing, I had a fantastic sheet of paper created by cleaning off my brayer in addition to the many sheets of gelli printed papers :)

Sometimes I find it easy to play but I really had to work at it this time.  It was worth it though :)