We are now in the heart of fall in the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures falling and darkness settling in by late afternoon. This week I searched the house for gloves and scarves, which will accompany me on every outing until April! The foliage display has seemed especially brilliant this year, and I’ve often found myself mesmerized by the glow of the trees as I pass along the streets of Seattle. So, it seems a bit absurd that over the past weeks I’ve been drawn to painting….flowers! Maybe it’s a way to resist that nagging anxiety about the cold, dark days to come, but whatever the reason, I’ve had fun finding the purple shadows in a white tulip, and defining the lacy edges of a pink peony blossom. Go figure….
I’ve also been doing some work on evaluating the pigments in my watercolor palette. After a fantastic workshop in September with Jan Hart, I felt like I needed to take a hard look at some of the hardened little mountains of paint that have been sitting in my palette, untouched, for far too long. In fact, I spent almost a full day on Handprint.com investigating the pigments of each paint on my palette and in my storage box – that’s a lot of paint! All that research compelled me to purchase some new paints, which I’m looking forward to trying out. I’m also putting together a small-sized travel palette and painting kit so that I can do more plein air painting. So, up next: my recent work and my new studio and travel palettes!