ART is beyond any boundaries. One can imagine beyond the limits of sky
and enjoy the beauty of ART at all times.

Personally, I have experienced that and have enjoyed that throughout the
life. I have explored many forms of art like dancing, music, interior designing,
painting in several media, Cloth design and much more. There is no limit for me
and never will be. It is great comfort and joy.

Ten years ago, I saw the acrylic painting of One Stroke by Donna Dewberry, an
inventor of the technique. As an artist, I fell in love with it and wanted to
explore more. So, became certified teacher and now I thoroughly
enjoy teaching ART. Check it out on www.Alkasdesigns.com

The surface for the acrylic paints are many like: Fabric, Wood, Metal, Paper, Canvas,
Glass, Furniture and many beyond your imagination. It is easy to get carried away but
it is destressing. It has been meditative for me.

Expressing yourself through any ART form is rewarding physically, mentally and
emotionally. It can bring inner peace and joy forever.

Artists are known for their love of Nature and many times they tend
to portray in their art work.

There are many different ways to represent it. Whether it is shown as
water fall with rocks and trees and mountains or tree and leaves with
autumn fall. Truly, nature has special place in the heart of artists
for sure. The viewers get to feel it through their art.

So, this is one of the most UNIQUE way of painting nature from nature.This
way all your feelings are out on the canvas or paper and you become one with it.

In Going Green series of mine, I have exactly done the same by using natural
objects like huge and small leaves, branches, dried flowers and shells have
created special effects with acrylics,spray paint and household sponges and
anything else you can think of. Let your imagination go wild and start creating
your own art for your home.

Hope this sparks a new direction in your life and you become your own creative genius.

The resources that we find naturally are abundant. More important is
putting our thinking cap and look for them and use them in our art
creations.

Stones are every where and one can get hold of large and small stones
with variety in color, shape and size. One can use to see the shape and
texture or can be used with spray paints too along with acrylic or
water color.

Fallen tree branches are great resource to use for art work. I have used
it in many paintings and art work and they are as natural as you can
get. It brings up all the details in your painting and brings tons
of joy when you see it. Most of the time they are quite dry and they
fall out because of the same reason. One can use part of the branch
with leaves or the whole branch. Depending on what story you want to
paint for your observers.

It is getting lost in your art work and keep creating what you love
to do. It has been meditational for me to create art work from these
natural sources.

Mixed media can be applied to many paintings. One can use water color with
acrylics, acrylics with oils, water based oils with water and acrylics and
you can go further and do your own mono printing and use some impressions
from natural resources like leaves.

“Going Green” series of art work of mine has been very well received and popular.
By using natural leaves and branches, I could create wonders with mixed media.
I, not only used leaves but flowers too for variety of paintings. I stayed with
natural leaves and dried them to preserve them well. Once the moisture is out,
you can keep them for a long period of time.

Sponges, an household item can be used for backgrounds with your paintings.
Spray paints in combination with another medium would work very well too.
This will always spark a new direction in painting for you as it has sparked
for me over the years.

This technique with the natural resources or found objects can be used on canvas
which is gessoed and on water color paper, at least 140 lbs. or better. Thicker the
paper the better it is. If you use water color paper, apply gesso prior to painting
and allow enough drying time.

You can create all kinds of art from natural resources like branches of
the tree, leaves, dried flowers, sea shells, found objects from sea shore,
your backyard and much more.

One can keep looking through the unwanted items perhaps you threw it away or
you found it somewhere else. If it looks interesting in terms of shape and
texture, perhaps you could use it.

Summer is a great time to find the found objects especially if you are a
beach lover and get some shells.

By using the texture of the shell or the shape, you can paint around it or with
it. Either taking the shape or if it is flat enough, can be used as the collage
item. Choice is yours. If you plan on using the shapes and draw using the shapes
it would bring great effect as long as you keep in mind the contrast of light and
dark.

I have experimented with many different objects including the household and the kithen
objects with interesting shapes and texture.

Let your creative juice flow and experiment with these objects.