A Hint Taken from the Season's

Farewell summer.  The day's are cooler and the colors are beginning to turn.  Mother Nature is not rushing into fall but instead is easing into the change. (so far) I appreciate that.   A more gradual approach to change suits me better.  I find I don't like change and yet tire of sameness.

View from Many Glacier - Pastel

Fall is my favorite season.  I'm not sure why, but I think it's the color.  While spring has startling color after the muted tones of winter, Fall makes a much bolder statement. I love the paradox of the colors  so warm and intense, just as we loose the heat of summer.  It's like natures last hurrah before a blanket of snow covers the earth and the cold makes dormant the very trees that screamed life only a month before.

I need the rhythm of seasons.  Just as I get tired of one another starts!  It must be part of who I am because I also find myself loving variety in my art as well.  Right now I am painting the a Glacier park scene in 3 different mediums with different formats.  I like each painting for a different reason.  But how would I have known if I had finished the first one and not tried any other way?  This approach allows me to find what best expresses what I want to say.  It may seem to others like trying to reinvent the wheel or a waste of time.  Maybe if I had thought out what I wanted to say thoroughly I would have know which format or medium best expressed that?  Since creating is largely intuitive for me, decisions make themselves in the process of even the best planned paintings.    Often it is better than what I planned originally and I go with it.  Sometimes it's a huge mistake!

I may not do this multiple painting thing often, but I find it valuable.  I helps keep my skills sharp in all mediums.  It helps clarify the idea or reason for the painting in the first place.  I stop when I feel I've said everything I want to say about that subject. 

Quick journal of a lone last larkspur of summer.

I'm taking my sketchbook journaling in a different direction as well, by recording what nature has for me each day.  The last Larkspur or hummingbird of summer.  Nothing big or dramatic, but the small "poetry" presented in nature.  With this in mind I look for something to paint that day and do an quick sketch in watercolor or pencil.   What a gift!  Like a gratitude journal in paintings! 

Try one of these or both and let me know what you think.  How do you explore a subject or make decisions on execution?  Look up the inspiring work of Kevin Macpherson's Reflections on a Pond.  http://www.reflectionsonapond.com/
While he does not change his medium he paints the same scene everyday of the year.  Now that's exploring a subject!

Just a few ideas to keep things fresh. A hint taken from the seasons.  We are nothing if we are not creative!