November

November is the month of beautiful browns. The forest is filled with layers of leaves offering an opportunity to give nuanced names to the color “ brown”. It is fun to mix, as as well as name, the colors. I see reddish-orangey browns, soft peachy- browns, rust-tinged orangey- browns and somber purplish-browns. Today is the last day of November and soon the browns will be covered with snow.

Here is my favorite Wendell Berry poem:

“When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird.

When I fall
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.”

Here are three tiny, 4” x 4” gouache paintings  of orangey-brown leaves.

Brambles

 The bramble leaves are now offering some interesting color changes. This past summer we were able to reach among the thorny stems to find some plump blackberries. Here are three tiny, 4” x 4” gouache paintings of some bramble leaves.

 I’ve chosen a snippet of a poem to accompany these paintings.

This is the last bit of Wendell Berry’s poem called, Grace.

“Again I resume the long

lesson: how small a thing

can be pleasing, how little

in this hard world it takes

to satisfy the mind

and bring it to it’s rest.”

Forest Floor

I miss the mushrooms. This year’s drought suppressed their growth. Last Fall the ground was populated by a variety of colorful and curiously shaped fungi. 

In Autumn I like to think of the forest floor as a tapestry with colors of dried leaves interwoven with mushrooms and evergreen plants. Here are three tiny, 4” x 4” gouache paintings of the forest floor, without mushrooms.

To accompany my paintings I’ve chosen some words from Suzanne Simard’s book, “Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

“The mushroom is the visible tip of something deep and elaborate, like a thick lace tablecloth knitted into the forest floor.”

Field’s Edge

 September was filled with sun shiny days. I enjoyed a few hours painting at the edge of a field one day last week. Here is my 5” x 7”gouache painting along with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before and which shall never be seen again.”

Autumn

Autumn

As summer turns to fall I look forward to seeing a display of colorful leaves. Currently I am interested in the greenish - yellowish leaves of some bushes and am enjoying their playful designs.  Here are three tiny, 4”X 4” gouache paintings.

To accompany these images I have chosen an excerpt from Elizabeth Jennings’s poem called, “Song at the Beginning of Autumn”:

“But every season is a kind
Of rich nostalgia. We give names — 

Autumn and summer, winter, spring—

As though to unfasten from the mind

Our moods and give them outward forms.”

Summertime

 Summertime

Here are three tiny paintings, 4” x 4”, and three short quotes for summer.

All paintings were inspired by the flowers in our yard. All quotes are from Mary Oliver’s book called, New and Selected Poems Volume 2. 

Morning Glory

“Whatever it is I am saying, I always need a leaf or a flower, if not an entire field.”

From Mary Oliver’s poem called,

Of What Surrounds Me.

Daisy

“Everyday I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight…”

From Mary Oliver’s poem called, Mindful 

Phlox 

“Every day I walk out into the world to be dazzled, then to be reflective.”

From Mary Oliver’s poem called, Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond.

Painting Pansies

Painting Pansies

Here is a Japanese Folk Saying that I came across many years ago:

In spring, flowers

Giving off fragrance;

Seeing their faces,

I feel like

Smiling back.

Welcome Spring 2025

Welcome Spring!

I came across an E.E. Cummings poem that captures the exuberance of Spring.  The first line reads, “when faces called flowers float out of the ground “.

My current painting project started with a gift of yellow tulips from my husband. Pure painting pleasure. After the flowers faded I bought some red ones at the grocery store. They had tight buds. Then I brought home a pot  full of purply- pink ones that loved sitting by the front window. I will plant these in the yard so next year they might “float out of the ground”.

 

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Farewell to Winter 2025

Farewell to Winter 2025

I enjoyed winter this year.

Here are three paintings inspired by the woods in our yard. The winter scenes are painted on small birch wood tiles with gouache paint. All are varnished and sealed with a wax medium.

Here are some favorite photos that I took in the woods.

Our pup enjoying the snow.

Tenacious leaf

Cone moved by wind.

Hydrangea shadows

Bark and Bases

Bark and Bases

Concluding my series of tree sketch posts, I focus on bark and bases. Here are six color sketches. Three done before snowfall and three after.

The following passage is an excerpt from Diana Beresford-Kroegers’s book,

To Speak for the Trees:

“In telling the story of my life and the leaves, roots, trunks, bark and stems that weave all through it, I hope to stir that memory. I want to remind you that the forest is far more than a source of timber. It is our collective medicine cabinet. It is our lungs. It is the regulatory system for our climate and our oceans. It is the mantle of our planet. It is the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren. It is our sacred home. It is our salvation.”

Tree Trunks and Limbs

Recently, I sketched the trunks and limbs of some trees that live together within a half acre next to our house. Here are six sketches. 

“The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together.”

― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Author of “Braiding Sweetgrass - Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants”.

Evergreens in Winter

 Evergreens in Winter

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Starting at the horizon and looking upwards from there; I sketched groupings of trees that surround our house. Evergreens take center stage in January with pines being most abundant.

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Click on this link to a lovely poem called, “Winter Trees”, by William Carlos Williams. The last line reads, ….the wise trees stand sleeping in the cold”. Poem

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