Autumn Trees – Acrylic & Ink in a Watercolour Moleskine
“Come said the wind to
the leaves one day,
Come o’re the meadows
and we will play.
Put on your dresses
scarlet and gold,
For summer is gone
and the days grow cold.”
- A Children’s Song of the 1880′s
All of a sudden the leaves are beginning to change and many are already carpeting the ground. It’s my favourite time of year as everything assumes a more peaceful mood. Long walks in the crisp air; the birds congregating before they migrate; squirrels gathering the winter store; no more having to cut the lawn; clean underwear ……..
roseindigo 10:56 am on September 25, 2009 | #
It’s my favorite season too, and I’ll be off on the 29th to the higher country to see the aspen trees in their golden splendor, just my little dog and I in a log cabin by a lake surrounded by aspens with the Sierra peaks in the background. I plan on at least ten solid days of nothing but walking, sketching and taking naps. Can’t wait!
boulgakow 11:46 am on September 25, 2009 | #
+1 with Rose.
Favourite season for me as well !!! I’ve been asked for a work abroad during five weeks in october and I refused. That was in order to stay at home, in my mountains and see the autumn colors. I miss a lot of money a I refused this work, but money is not the most important thing. Ah ah.
Well drawn Bob, especially the blur parts in the background.
Super !!!
Palomita 12:40 pm on September 25, 2009 | #
very emotional drawing!
nikira 1:43 pm on September 25, 2009 | #
I like your colors a lot. Very romantic. And, Pascal, I wish I could do the same, I wish I can paint instead of work…
Joseph R Tomlinson 10:32 pm on September 25, 2009 | #
my favorite season also! love it Bob, i can’t wait the temps drop a few more degrees to make the walks and bike trips a little less sweaty!
bart 6:48 am on September 26, 2009 | #
I like the nice foggy light… and the subtle melancholic impression your drawing suggests!
trebor61 9:36 am on September 26, 2009 | #
Jings! Thanks everyone. Nice to know I’m not the only one who is romantised by the seasons. I hope you all enjoy peace during this time.
Rose – enjoy your holiday. Your plans sound fantastic. Incidentally (this might be totally wrong) I’ve just watched a golf tournament – the Reno/Tahoe from “near” you?” It was set in amongst fantastic, tall pines. You are lucky to stay near there (If, in fact, you are near there)
Pascall – You crafty person. Sneaking off work to paint. A man after my own heart.
Palomita – So kind of you and I’m glad that this stirs some, albeit small, emotions.
Nikira – Because I’m experimenting with acrylic paints I have a limited set, at the moment, in case I decide not to pursue this medium. Interesting that you find the colours nice. Maybe I should limit myself to a restricetd pallette with other stuff. Sometime I think I get too carried away with too many tubes of paint.
Joe – My grandfather used to say that only horses sweat. Gentlemen “perspire” while ladies “glow”. keep up the bike runs and you will soon be as fit – or decrepid, as me.
Bart- Your are more intuitive than you realise. I originally intended to have a smokey bonfire of leaves in the foreground which would have added to your “foggy light” I decided against this as it felt it was like “Killing the Leaves” described in my poem. Thanks for taking the time to send your comment.
EVERYONE – next Monthly Challenge to be announced on Tuesday (see Forums)
Nikira 10:38 am on September 26, 2009 | #
Bob, Horses sweat the best sweat in the world.
I use to ride horses for 15 years and wiped my mittens on their sweaty necks, so I can smell them during the days of separation. May be we can draw horses for one of the challenges?
roseindigo 11:00 am on September 26, 2009 | #
Bob, yes Reno/Tahoe is close enough for me to visit quite often. While Reno is in a bowl surrounded by mountains and is mostly desert-like (except for irrigation), as you go up the mountain you come to Tahoe, so I imagine the golf course you saw is part of the way up the mountain where the pines begin growing at the edges of Reno itself. They’ve built some expensive neighborhoods there with those gorgeous golf courses. I will be passing by there going south towards Mammoth Lakes with the Sierras to my right all the way. I may even take a peek at Mount Whitney while I’m in the vicinity. Forget climbing it—looking at it is all I can do these days.
Margie 11:08 am on September 26, 2009 | #
gorgeous, Bob! The word “plaintive” comes to mind when I look at this
Margie 11:10 am on September 26, 2009 | #
regarding restricted palettes: I find they can evoke the most emotions. I love sticking to 2 or 3 colors (you may have notices).. it has a strong impact
Pinkjasper 12:17 pm on September 26, 2009 | #
This one I think is DIVINE. Partly it is a matter of not having 20 colors competing for attention and the simplicity is something you do well, but a couple of these outdoor walks seem maybe to come together because you enjoy doing them so much. The love is there. You do distance really well with the trees, there’s depth to it, I’ve noticed this before. Somehow those bats had the same quality, you can get that same thing going with clouds, that same 3D-almost thing going on (and you don’t want it to REALLY be 3D because there’s a sentimentality lacking in work that’s totally realistic). This is one of the half dozen or so that you’ve done that’s REALLY GREAT. I like your stuff all the time but some of it just has extra sparkle. I guess that’s true for eveyone. Maybe the gold and sepia color right when the weather is turning kind of does it for me. I really like this. It’s really neat.
trebor61 7:07 am on September 27, 2009 | #
Hi Nikira. I’m afraid that the content of the next challenge depends upon what comes out of the draw. Maybe a great/crazy idea would be to make the draw then try to work horses into the scene. That would be “fun” – He! He!
Margie – I hope that your “plaintive” means melancholic but does not suggest a “low” mood as I feel that Autumn should be celebrated (unless your garden gets flooded – nice pictures of your house by the way. Thanks for sending them). I don’t know if you have used acrylics before. I’ve had some “testing” times getting the hang of them. First of all they dry darker, compared to watercolours drying lighter. Then my tubes of colours have obscure names such as “Sand” which is nothing like sand but more of a pink/orange. Its interesting!!!!!
For all of you, out there, who are experiencing similar nervous breakdowns with your paints, you could do worse than to adopt Margie’s idea of limited pallettes. Another one of her winners is to make up “Swatches” of your colours so you can compare the difference in their range. Finally she advocates using a colour wheel to fit the correct complementary colours beside each other. (I hope, Margie, you don’t mind me quoting your “facebook” video – correctly?) I have made colour swatches (painted examples of each colour on a chart) with my watercolours, with my Inktense pencils but thought that I could get away without trying this with the acrylics. Guess what I’m going to be doing this afternoon?
Sophie – How nice of you to send this in. Thank you for the brilliant comments – I’ll send the cash later.
I’ve read your, yesterday’s entry in the forums section (under “pinkjasper” everyone) and am delighted you are aquiring the technology to your stuff here at last. Yes, you can get an avator (gravator? I’m unsure which/or both is correct) Just scan your image, save it onto your computer’s desktop (its easy to find it there, later) and follow the instructions in the “faq” section of the home page of this site. You will be directed to http://www.gravatar.com
and asked to upload your image which is saved on your desktop. Don’t worry about the size of the image. You get a chance to edit it during this part of the process and can change it at any time. Good luck to you.
trebor61 7:18 am on September 27, 2009 | #
Sorry Rose. Didn’t mean to leave you out but I shot away to watch the start ot the final round of that golf tournament so I could find out its location. It was the “Reno-Tahoe Open” and was played at the Montreux Country Club during the first week in August. It was interesting to learn that, because of the thinner air, the golfers found their shots travelling up to 10% further than normal. Sounds like something which I need. So this is near your part of the world? What a small place this world is indeed!
roseindigo 10:37 am on September 27, 2009 | #
Bob, it’s about two hours away, but I’ve often traveled by the Montreux Country Club. It’s on the way up Mount Rose and to Lake Tahoe, outside of the Reno city limits—and it’s beautiful and very hoity-toity exclusive! The drive up Mount Rose Highway is very curvy and gorgeous. It’s interesting, that the shots travel about 10% further, but yes, it makes sense–less resistance with the thinner air.
But I’ve known people who have built their dream homes at those high altitudes and then have had to sell them because their bodies can’t handle the thinner air on a long-term basis. I guess I will see how I do with it at about 8,000 feet where I rented my little cabin. Of course, ten days is not like living somewhere permanently.
Sophie Brown 11:29 pm on September 27, 2009 | #
I bet roseindigo would get the cool part of this: I spent my life savings on a Tee Pee that I may not have a place to park for many moons to come. 24 feet in diameter. Someday I will buy land somewhere or maybe find a publicly viable spot and live in my Tee Pee (sp?) It’s supposed to be good even in very cold weather. Nobody around me really gets this.
Sophie Brown 11:30 pm on September 27, 2009 | #
Bob, thanks for the helpful hints!!!
Sophie Brown 11:32 pm on September 27, 2009 | #
My sock monkey MacDee has taken up the cause. “Why don’t you get off your butt and hook up your printer?” he says.