I missed it...

...last week, that is.  Somehow I got caught up in the 'loving the fall' and spent a lot of time outdoors and not much in the studio.   I love this photo I took in town.  It feels like autumn is cuddling up to winter growth, don't you think?

I'm making up for the lack of studio time this week, though, and have managed to create some more vegetation on the 'small vases' piece.  

as well as additional playing on the first large vase painting.  I'm pretty sure this one has already named itself 'The Great Escape'.  I'm wondering where those colourful bubbles are heading.

You've asked where the books currently reside, and here's my answer.  The shelves are jam-packed and higgedly-piggedly.  You're quite correct that Something Must Be Done. 

To that end, I've pulled out the smallest of the books and an idea from the creative hat, and intend to make a mini nest/rest for them.  These four little crates are the perfect size to show them off, but I can already see it will take a miracle to make them look like anything akin to a bespoke shelf.  Wish me luck!!

And with Canadian Thanksgiving just passed this last weekend, my creativity also involved cooking, baking, and a glass of something (can wine be creative if one is just drinking it?).  The only photo I have, though, is our colourful cranberries-in-the-making.  

That's it for this week, my friends, and I may be away next week as well.  If the weather permits it, I'm heading to Penticton and Kelowna over five snow-covered passes to visit family.  I've not yet trained the house sitter to do a blog post, so I'll put that on my mental list.  😉  In the meantime, I'm wishing you wonderful weather, magic in your studio and autumn happy days .  

It's that time of year again...

...when the trees burst into their flames of autumn splendor.

They tango in red,

 orange,

 gold,

green, 

and every possible combination in between.

They chat over the back fence with their neighbours

and whisper secrets to the sky.

They congregate in groups

as they strut their autumn wardrobe

before they hunker down for the coming winter.

May your autumn be as colourful as ours, and may the texture and glory make your heart sing.

With chaos...

...all around me as I clean and purge (we're planning on a spring down-sizing), I've been doing much too little in the studio.  That does not mean, however, that I can't appreciate the out-of-control colour around me as we head towards the end of fall.

Here's what I mean:

The front lawn is carpeted with maple leaves.

The shrubbery in the backyard fairly shouts with riotous colour against the clear blue of the sky.

The mountain ash down the street is laden with berries.

There's glistening gold everywhere I look.

Even the fallen colour carries that POW factor.

Strawflowers are gorgeous at this time of the year.

Sunflowers are at their best as they wave goodbye to summer.

Of course, there's colour on the web when I need a break from all that sorting/organizing/cleaning, etc.  Here are a few of the luscious goodies I found over the past week or so.

Wendy Mamattah

Anita Bloch Ceramics

Debbie Colby

We live in a magical world, don't we?  Everywhere we look there's a feast for the eyes.

I'm leaving...

...but in a good way.  In the fall, the two maple trees in the front yard keep us 'leaving' until well into November.

  They are each well over a thousand feet tall (or at least drop leaves as though they are) 

They cover the lawn,

 

and the car,

and require constant raking

and bagging.

It's one of our major signals that fall has fully arrived.

They fill our yard with colour and richness, provide pressed leaves for mixed media fodder, and are a strong antidote to the thought of cooler weather to follow.

What is your major autumn signal?  How does your colour grow?

Another autumn...

painting done.  This one

Autumn Gift

uses the same cool burgundy tones as Autumn Herstory below, but the silver inking and darker range of leaves cools it even more to push it further towards the wintry spectrum.  I'm starting to shiver already (or maybe it was that morning walk at -2 degrees Celcius!).

Almost Gone...

Fall is nearly over, and I can feel the edge of winter even here in this mild and lovely Creston valley.  I'm doing everything possible to hang onto the colour and feeling.

Autumn Herstory

I'm presently working on four different pieces around the autumn theme, utilizing those pressed leaves that are so addicting.  Incidently, does anyone out there have a sure-fire method of using pressed leaves in their work?  I'm presently working on experimental method number 3,459...

I love how the leaves look so different when the colour of the background is changed - it's all about location, location, location!

Autumn Pinned



Autumn Herstory has a cool, wintry feeling because of that chilly undertone in the background, and the heat in Autumn Pinned is palpable with the quinacridone gold background.  So I'm sticking with that, and ignoring winter!