The Himalayas Inspire and Challenge Me: Artful Printing with Himalayan Leaves

Writing this post is going to be a different experience, I think. For I’m not quite used to writing from any and every place – even within my home – let alone from outside home – in between travels or from hotel rooms. Talk about getting holed in a comfort zone!

Today is an exception. I’m writing from our hotel room in Mashobra, near Shimla – in Himachal Pradesh (Himalayan region in India).

In fact, this trip itself has been exceptional. We’ve been out and about for the past eight days. But the pace hasn’t felt rushed and the days have been much less packed as compared to some other trips in the past.

Inspite of not trying to “cover” every possible destination – or may I say, DUE TO not sqeezing in every destination in our itinerary –  it’s been entirely fulfilling and soul-nourishing.

Read on to see our leaf art with Himalayan leaves…

So, yes, here I am – breaking away from my comfort zone of writing only at my desk in the study room back home.

I think it’s the magic of the Himalayas that’s doing its work on me; its pristine cool breeze echoing the joy of the song birds. Its vegetation, flora and fauna – pure treat for the eyes, mind and soul.

Not only my words; but my creative, artistic side has been curious, too – to break those barriers of self-limiting comfort zones.

Last few days, we’ve enjoyed nature to our heart’s content. Exactly as I had narrated in this post about enjoying nature with a sense of wonder!

We’ve taken nature walks; collected leaves, pine cones, drift wood; gone trekking and hiking. Even river rafting on the Sutlej river.

And when back in the hotel room in the evenings, Pari and I have indulged in free-form, open-ended art with our leaf collection.

Here are a few pictures of our leaf art/printing with Himalayan leaves.

These paintings will remain special to me for ever. For the stories behind these leaves – where we plucked, the laughs and talks we shared, the pristine beauty that we immerse in are beyond words….

We used whatever basic art material we had at hand. For printing these, we used tempera paint and brushes. And our art journals.

Leaves of the Pine tree lend themselves beautifully as brushes and for stamping!

Pari dipped them in paint and stamped flat on to the paper to create these beautiful star-burst prints!

My version of art with Pine leaves. I used the leaves side-ways – more like brush – rather than as stamps.

Here’s another way I printed with leaves. I applied paint on the vein side of the leaf; using three shades to make the print colourful.

I love these leaves for their prominent vein network. The plant bears gorgeous clustered flowers in hues of blue, purple, lavendar.

Some more pics of the leaf prints:

We’ve collected more than a dozen varieties of leaves with interesting shapes, vein structure and shades of green! I can’t wait to try different techniques to do art with them.

And then, we have a bag full of pine cones and fruits/seeds of the Himalayan Cedar tree – called Deodhar locally.

Will share more nature art in the coming days!

I feel like doing a little happy dance as I finish this post! Yippie!

At least today I was able to break out of my writing comfort zone.

Will I continue to push my limits and boundaries? I’ll keep trying. That I promise you of. For I realize that creativity cannot flourish, grow and evolve when we set self-limiting mental boundaries.

What about you?

Are you stuck in some sort of comfort zone, too, that you want to get out of? 

What is your comfort zone?

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Tagged as: leaf art, open-ended art ideas, stamping encourage open-ended art in children, stamping with leaves, unique stamping ideas