Hello darkness my old friend. Fall is a tough time for me, I don’t like winter and the darkness. The short days are especially difficult, I frequently joke that I am solar powered.
This fall came earlier than usual for our area. Without a prolonged “Indian Summer” I didn’t have a chance to feel tired of the heat. We never really go to say goodbye.
In years past, I have let myself get stressed out from all from all of the obligatory decorative clutter that appears in our house between October and January 1st. Now, I am embracing the mess. Or tying to.
When the days get shorter, I cook and bake more, I read more. I paint more. All of this indoor and inner reflection comes with a price, too much navel gazing, too much self-analysis.
I painted this over the weekend, I actually worked on 2 paintings side by side. Using this opportunity to tweak a few things from one to the other, playing with color and light. I am also attempting to maximize my very expensive Arches watercolor paper which comes in the most awkward sizes. Picture an angry beret-wearing, cigarette smoking cabal deciding, “Ah, yes, we shall make the papier of a useless size for any of those American frames. They shall buy beaucoup papier, cutting into even more useless scraps. Viola! C’est magnifique!
Can you tell that I took 4 years of French in high school? Or that I also took 2 years in college. It wasn’t pretty.
This painting is from a photo I took at Fairy Stone State Park early this spring. It was very cold and a storm was rolling in with darkness overtaking the light. Kind of how I feel right now.
I am counting down to December 21st, at least then I know they days will be getting longer. I will always love you, Summer! If you come back I won’t complain about mosquitoes. Maybe chiggers, but not the mosquitoes!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/889564041/storm-on-mountain-lake-at-sunset?ref=shop_home_active_1&frs=1
Fairy Stone State Park has beautiful lakefront cabins, some original post and beam and some modern. There are several good hiking trails, including one that travels on an old iron mining trail! Another trail goes to a scenic waterfall. The fairy stones are fun to hunt for but your best bet is to drive to the other side of the park to hunt!
