Autumn Harmony

Autumn Harmony

24 x 18

It's my favorite time of year- finally! When I was saving this image of a newly completed painting to my computer, I had to laugh at the number of painting titles that start with the word "Autumn". There's Autumn… Light, Moment, Interlude, Sunrise, Evening, Morning, Sunset, Dusk, Road, Crossing, Woods, Reflections …well, you get the idea. Yes, I  love to paint autumn. This year, I am actually painting it "in season" instead of months behind, so I hope to show a few more with titles that start "Autumn" soon.

PS. There is a new post up on the Field Notes blog about Speed of the Line & Stoppers. Want to know more? Check it out!

PPS  Our popular online class Composing the Landscape starts October 31.

Fall?

Is it fall? Not quite yet, but it is September and fall cannot be far behind. Fall and winter are my favorite seasons. Those spare, stripped down landscapes and subtle color harmonies thrill me as no saturated summer greens ever can. Here is one new painting for the Collectors' Reserve Show & Sale at the Gilcrease Museum opening in late October.

 Winter Reflections

20 x 16

detail

Autumn on My Mind

Due to illness, I have been away from both the studio and the field for about seven weeks. This is the longest hiatus away from creative work that I have had in the last fifteen years or so. I don't like it one bit, and particularly during this, my favorite season. So today I thought I would post some images from other autumns which were more productive. Just looking at them makes me long for a nice long tramp in the woods. Soon.....

Autumn, Farewell

Autumn Road

16 x 20

Available at Hildt Galleries, Chicago

One of the many things I love about fall in northeast Texas is how long it lasts. From early October right through December, there is a constantly changing show of subtle autumn color, increasingly mixed with bare branches and set off by the dark greens of the pines and cedars. This year, despite the drought and perhaps because of it, the color has been a bit more saturated. The wonderful rains that finally came provided enough moisture to turn all the fields an emerald green, creating a delicious color harmony.

This little side road runs off the main route I take on my morning walks.

detail

Autumn-Morning Mist

Autumn-Morning Mist
12 x 12

There was most definitely some wishful thinking going on in the studio when I painted this. Hard to imagine that fall will ever come, but I was able to conjure up this painting of those lovely autumn mists from memory.

Autumn Twilight

Autumn Twilight
24 x 30
Available at Hildt Galleries, Chicago

This is another of those fall pieces that I put aside last November to work on other things. Its been almost four months but I still have a very vivid memory of the evening that inspired this painting.

Autumn Light

Autumn Light
24 x 30
Available at Galerie Kornye, Dallas

Every year this time, I have to adjust to the changing light. The thing I notice most is that the light is "harder" - a result of less moisture (humidity) in the air. We've had so much rain this fall, this hasn't really been noticeable until this week. Soon, the moisture returns in the form of lovely winter fog. But, for now, the clarity of the light is striking.

Evening Glow

Evening Glow
30 x 37.5

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face.

John Donne

Suggestions, please

Triptych

24 x 48

This piece will be shown at the Fall Gallery Night show at Galerie Kornye West in Ft. Worth next month. Usually, I get an idea for a painting and the title is part of that idea. Or, the title comes to me while I am painting it. Maybe its because I have a studio full of pieces that I am trying to finish for upcoming shows, but I can't seem to conjure up a title for this one. Suggestions, please?

Autumn Pond

Autumn Pond
10 x 8
click to see larger image

One of the things I really love is the change of seasons. Fall, in particular, seems more drawn out here than in other places I have lived. The crisp halcyon days of indian summer have slipped way to the almost brittle melancholy of late autumn. The crunching sound of dry leaves underfoot follows me on every walk. The landscape has opened up again, bare trees revealing corners of woods that have been hidden from view all summer. Right before my eyes, the landscape is reinventing itself.

The Season Turns

Right before sunset yesterday a front came through. I woke during the night to the sound of rain. This morning it was a bit cooler, but still mild. But, I could feel that the season of bright autumn days was giving way to something else. Bare trees now mix in with the rusts and ochres and trees in the distance look more violet. The grass has stopped growing and everything looks more spare, stripped down. Out on the road, windswept with leaves, it felt a bit desolate, like every living thing was turning inward, preparing for the rigors of winter.

I stayed in the studio most of the day and worked on several larger pieces. This is the latest on the 48 x 60. I've worked on the trees a bit more, repainted the sky and glazed over the edges of the trees again. I've had to wait several days between each session, not only to let the glazes dry, but also to "oil out" in between. Oiling out is an old term, used in the 19th century, to describe the process for bringing the colors and values back to their original state. When oil paint dries , the darks will dry a bit lighter and the lights a bit darker. So before you start again, its necessary to use a bit of medium over the surface to regain the saturation, color and value. There are still several more painting sessions to be done to complete this.


I've also been working on two other under paintings. I finished this 30 x 30 yesterday and a 36 x 30 today. It was a good day in the studio.

Leaf Peeping

Indian Summer II
10 x 20
Please contact me if interested in this piece

Our beautiful fall weather continues. The leaves are just spectacular this year- much more so than they were last year (our first fall here). We don't have that sort of over the top Vermont kind of color- its more a full range of rich ochres, rust, copper, with the occasional screaming red maple thrown in. So, I've been out leaf peeping up and down our road every afternoon, hither and yon, over hill and dale...you get the idea.

Indian Summer

Indian Summer
12 x 16
Please contact me if interested in this piece

We have had some incredibly beautiful fall days over the last week or so. Yesterday it was almost 80 degrees, which made me start thinking about the term "indian summer". It turns out to be a uniquely American term, in use for over 200 years, although this phenomena is recognized and called by other names in Europe and other parts of the world. Of course, it refers to a warm period of weather, occurring during a time of the year (fall) when cooler weather prevails. I prefer a less meteorological definition - a metaphor for something that happens at an unexpected time like a late bloom or flowering- something perhaps brief, but cherished for its untimely appearance.

October Afternoon

October Afternoon
7 1/2 x 12 oil
Please contact me if interested in this piece

This past weekend I drove to New Mexico for the opening of the Albuquerque Museum Miniatures & More show. It was a quick trip- 24 hours of driving squeezed into about a 54 hour trip. But, I'm glad I went. I saw many friends at the show and I always enjoy the drive, especially at this time of year. I was more than a bit worried about how the show would go, given the recent economic news. I haven't heard whether overall things were slower, but Summer Moon sold, for which I am very grateful.

About a year ago, I was making the drive back from a show in California, and wrote about not being sure where home was. But Sunday, as the high desert of New Mexico gave way to the rolling hills of north Texas, I knew I was heading in the right direction.

Heading South

Heading South oil 6 x 6
Sold
I think autumn is one of the most evocative times of the year. Unlike spring, which is all about rebirth and looking forward, fall is a reflective time - more about looking back than forward. It can have an almost sensual feel, made even more poignant by the passing days. The word "autumn" itself is a metaphor for loss and the passage of time. I don't know that I got all of that in this little painting, but I sure did try.