Little Book, Big Colours

A few months ago we were at Home Depot getting paint for our walls. I found myself enamored by all the paint sample squares and strips, having more fun gathering interesting colour combinations than actually selecting one for the walls. And they were free, right? Cute little 3"x 3" squares in shades like Aqua Breeze, Sunset, and Lemon Sherbet. (I want to make up my own names for paint colours. Something like Puppy Belly or Faded Couch or Angry Rhino, but I don't see them selling as well). So, while my original intention was just to create a stack of cards I could mix and match for possible palette ideas in a painting or quilt, I found myself actually painting ON the squares as if they were mini canvases. For some reason I was more spontaneous and free with these tiny ventures into Abstract Expressionism, than if I had prepped a big canvas and gotten out my jumbo sized brushes. Is there a word for fear of large paintings? Working on my wee miniatures lessened the impact if I screwed up. Just toss the paint square and try again. I ended up with a stack of about 15 teeny artworks. But then what to do with them? I thought of mounting them in a grid, but in the end I liked the idea of a tiny book. I chose the best twelve and mounted them on both sides of watercolour paper cut in 5"x 10" strips so they could be folded in half to make the  5" pages. But first I needed a cover page and a title so out came  the brightest red acrylic paint I could mix, Cadmium Red Medium with a few drops of Pyrrole Orange. I think I will call this shade Red Hot Mama:

 See the gold stamping on that red cover that looks sort of like a flower? I dipped the dried cut end of a celery bunch in metallic paint. The turquoise hexagons are from some bubble wrap, and the bullseye circles are the end of a spool of thread. Everything is an art tool.
Here are the rest of the pages photographed flat before they will be folded into the book then stitched with waxed linen thread along the spine. I may add words but right now it's just a picture book, a celebration of saturated colour, an exploration of design and composition. If I ever try one of these on a giant scale, well, I'm going to need a bigger studio.
Click once on each image to see them close-up and read the tiny print from the German dictionary pages.

Here's the assembled book and someone (who needs a manicure) browsing through it: "Riveting, a real pager turner!"