They are dead leaves, and yet, along with them and around them, life is overflowing. In the same way that Mannerist painters experimented with objects, endowing their creations with a breath of plausible 'movement' based on concepts such as dimension, scope or depth, even in a simple pile of fallen leaves the imagination can prevail and get something that, without detracting, offers the spectator the consolation, at least, of a careful aesthetic.

The dark backgrounds, which can be obtained, for example, looking for chiaroscuros in a simple puddle or in the quiet surfaces of a placid pond, provide that dimensional element, which sometimes suggests a free movement in space.

If we add to it the attractive tonalities that some leaves acquire, we will also have the ideal complement to make a painting -or a small vegetable still life, as it was suggested at the beginning of the present entry- not exempt, after all, from certain grace and magnetism. And with a good printer and a suitable paper, we can even make ourselves a beautiful painting, that does not detract from hanging on the wall of our living room.

NOTICE: Both the text and the photographs that accompany it are my exclusive intellectual property.