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Pray for Peace
Reflection Monday October 2024
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October Along the New Haven River Lincoln, Vermont |
Day 278 of Week 40 October 2024
Foliage Check In
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Robert Frost Interpretative Trail Ripton, Vermont Georgie's Trail 3 October 2024 |
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Rt 125, Ripton, Vermont Just above Robert Frost Interpretive Trail 3 October 2024 |
A quick trip for lunch to the Robert Frost Interpretative Trail on a sunny afternoon to check on the foliage progress today was nice. I didn't walk around much.
At the higher mountain elevations there are more trees showing colors than middle and lower elevations. Along Route 125, there are colors in a tree here and there. At this stage, peak will take few more days. I expect this weekend and all of next week will be the best leaf peeping.
A Finished Painting
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The Adirondack Mountains From Addison, Vermont Acrylic on canvas hardboard 16 x 12 inches |
The painting is finished.
It looks better in person than in the photograph.
Does that mean I'll change it? Probably.
For now, it is as it is.
I prefer to glue cotton duck canvas onto hardboard because it is easier to ship and frame. It can be heavier. Easy to frame because the profile is thin enough to fit into ready-made frames.
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Same painting with smoother clouds and snow |
Autumn's Healing Beauty
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Vermont 2020 |
Imagine the number of leaf peepers multiplied by the number of times they gasp in awe of the beauty of Autumn foliage. New England, and Vermont (where the photographs were taken in past years), has a unique foliage beauty due to the climate of the area.
Scientific American, "How the Brain Responds to Beauty"
Psychology Today, "The Healing Power of Nature"- Create a leaf atlas. Photograph, identify, paint a watercolor of various trees and their leaves. Note the location and date.
- List local diners in your area within 50 to 75 miles. Photograph and note what's on the menu, including prices.
- Make a photo album journal of the places where you like to stop, roadside farm stands, fall festivals, country stores and such.
- Journal about your walks and hikes during the autumn
- Find a large maple tree you can sit under. Invite family and friends for a foggy morning coffee and pumpkin bread. Listen to the birds, the wind, Nature.
Voter Registration Purges
Wild Apples & Creativity
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Wild Apples |
Are they though? Wild apples, I believe, grow outside an orchard or in somebody's yard. Along the roadside you can see shrubs that you know must have been planted by a house, but there is no house. The same is true of apple trees in a group. Then there's the issue of wildlife carrying the apple seeds into the woods by various means.
One morning on a slow walk the sunlight was catching a bunch of wild apples just right to make their rotting shapes look lovely, almost ripe again. I took a photograph to paint from. The canvas has been hanging around. The photo hasn't. There are folders labeled, ToPaint, that I use. Once in a while though, a picture becomes lost. Like the apples, it has gone wild.
Autumn is a season of reflection, I feel, more than the other three are. We harvest our knowledge, our memories, our expectations of where we have been and where we are going.
I'm thinking that way because I've been painting again, regularly on a few canvases at a time, old as well as new images. Depression isn't selective. It mows down much of what we enjoy doing in life. Being an artist that doesn't paint is not comfortable for me. The irony is that when I am in a severely deep episode, art is where I retreat from the pain. This time, however, it is the resolve to be Artist, not pain that brings me to pick up a brush.
I feel that there are times in life when we don't need to figure out why. It is better, when it happens, to just enjoy our creative selves.
Recycling Old Thinking Trash
Here I go again with the thinking...
Walden Pond Cove Woods 2004
Hello Autumn 2024
The last image would make for a nice leftover paint painting.
Each year I like to take pictures of the same places for comparison.
Maybe a 2024 change is in order to venture out to new places.
Allergies this season have been a bother most days. Since I got the first shingles shot, I've been sleeping sounder than usual. It is weird.
I've been sadly looking at the soups when grocery shopping. My heart aches because I've decided to have homemade soup only. I might buy chicken broth though.
Are you a homemade souper or easy can person?