I’ve said before about autumn being one of my 4 favourite seasons, and I could say the same about this time of year.
When late spring starts to gently roll round to summer, it is beautiful. Not yet high summer, with its heat and parched lawns, but still early, when the leaves are still new, flowers are beginning to bloom, and the novelty of long days and warmer weather, and wearing our summer clothes again (even if it is with leggings and a cardigan!) has yet to wear to off.
It would be easy to look at the sea of new green leaves and just think “Green!”. But closer inspection reveals that there are many shades of green, from yellowy, to bright green, through to greens that are almost blue.
Creative Invitations
I’ve talked a bit recently about the idea of a creative invitation. It’s the result of a combination of ideas from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, forest bathing, early years education and unschooling, fused together with my ideas about what it means to be a creative person, and how I might provide a safe and encouraging space for people to explore their creativity.
I’ll explain in more detail exactly what I mean by a creative invitation another time. For the moment, it’s probably enough to say that a creative invitation is an invitation to try out some ideas, see what you like and decide yourself when it has scratched the creative itch. There is no pressure to make anything perfect, finished or polished at all. It’s about joyfully making something, being creative, feeling inspired by what is around you and not feeling restricted or held back by perfectionism.
It is very difficult in this world of ours to just play and explore, like we did as very young children. There is usually the expectation that we will produce something finished, and ideally practical. Or worse, something that we can sell, as though making money is the only thing that really matters, and that there is no place for joyful self expression once you hit your 4th birthday. I feel very strongly that this is nonsense! So creative invitations allow for joyful, playful exploration of creativity regardless of how old you are.
Gathering Greens
Wanting to do something with all the green I could see, I collected some leaves. Ideally I would have done this while out on a walk, but I decided instead to nip outside into my wild and jungly garden instead.
Just as we can look outside and think “Green!” without much consideration of the variety of greens, it’s also very easy to think “Leaves!” in much the same way. But, like people, they are all so different.
There are lots of things I could have done, and I might at some point, but one thing I had noticed was the variation in shades of green. So what I decided to do was sort the leaves from yellowy green to blueish green
The leaves in the middle were quite similar shades. If you watch the little video I posted to Instagram, I actually changed my mind about where I had put one of them, and watching the video, I think I could have perhaps moved it another place to the right. But that in itself is interesting, and I realised that sometimes seeing things played back on my phone or as a photo gives an extra perspective.
Matching Greens
Once I had sorted them out, I then had a go at matching the greens of the leaves with coloured pencil.
I found that some colours were very close, but for others, blending two colours made a green that was closer. And actually, looking at the little squares, the ones where I combined two colours are more interesting. There is a depth to them, and I can see how it might be possible to make variations in that one kind of green by how much of each colour I use, which is something I might do in the future. I can imagine drawing hills, or a garden, and needing variation where there is light and where there is shadow.
Are the results perfect? No.
Is it a finished thing that I can put on the wall, use or sell? No.
Do those two things matter? Also no!
I took inspiration from the green I could see from my kitchen window, and took a few moments to do something creative. It might inform something else in the future, or it might not, but what matters to me is the joyful self expression in a moment of creative exploration.
So I invite you to take a little green pause this week.
And if you like the idea of creative invitations, you might be interested to know that I am currently working on a gentle, monthly, seasonal guide called The Wild Blossom Companion, which includes creative invitations each month. If you’d like to know when it is available, the best thing to so is to sign up for my email newsletter. There’s a box in the side bar, and another on the home page.
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