Autumn Oldie

Autumn Woods

Oil on Canvas

18x24

I was going through some of my old paintings and came across this one from years back.  This style is so foreign to me now.  It was done when I was just learning to paint with oils.  But I just had to pull it out because autumn is my very favorite time of year.  It's hard to believe that it's almost October.

Here is my favorite autumn quote:

The fields are harvested and bare,

And Winter whistles through the square.

October dresses in flame and gold

like a woman afraid of growing old.

                        - Anne Mary Lawler

One Perfect Pumpkin

My husband brought this sweet pumpkin into the house yesterday.  Just looking at it makes me happy knowing that autumn is on the way.  Since it was so hot this summer, no one thought to turn the compost heap in the back of the garage.  And since we always recycle our pumpkins there every year, that's where a new batch of pumpkins decided to grow.

We'll try to bring more pumpkins indoors as they mature, because if left outside the greedy squirrels will start chomping on them.

Autumn....asks that we prepare for the future-

that we be wise in the ways of garnering and keeping.

But it also asks that we learn to let go - to acknowledge

the beauty of sparseness.

- B. W. Overstreet (1947)

Autumn

Autumn 

9x12

This is a study that, I must admit, came from somewhere in my imagination.  It was done purely as a way to learn more about the transparency process.  I learn from every one of these paintings.  And to make sure I retain what I learn, I take detailed notes.  Hopefully, I'll be able to create larger paintings soon.  But for right now, there's more to figure out.

I start by building the bones of the painting with dark transparent colors, then allow them to dry.  The trick is to not do this too dark, because successive colors will darken the initial colors.  For the sky I used transparent sienna mixed with white.  After drying, I glazed over it with sienna.  In the background field, transparent colors were used, but when they dried completely, I also glazed over with a bit of white and transparent sienna to cause recession of space.

There are times when I feel I'm wasting my time with the pursuit of going off in a whole different direction.  I feel like going back to what was a comfortable painting process for me.  But other times, I know I'm on the right track.  Being an artist means having difficult, frustrating times too.