NATURE

We have Mexican friends we visit whenever we go to

Mexico, and one year we took some maple leaves that

we had pressed. They found it almost impossible to

believe when we told them that the leaves were green

all summer while on the tree and these beautiful

colours appear only because they are dying.

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

(Claes Oldenburg)

Autumn Leaves

Summer in the city. Boris Spremo’s excellent

photograph in the Toronto Star inspired this

interpretation. It caught my eye because of the

contrast between the solid, anchored feeling of the

fountain and the evanescent freedom of the bird.

You have to be aware of all the latent possibilities that give a work

its special character – its atmosphere, its moods, its contrasts.

(Alfred Brendel)

Time For A Drink

Although the tree has died, the nourishment it

provides allows new life to spring up around it,

enhancing the beauty of its old weathered stump.

We began as mineral. We emerged into plant life, and into the

animal state, and then into being human, and always we have

forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly

recall being green again. (Rumi)

Regeneration

Capturing the ‘wet’ look of raindrops on an autumn leaf was not

as difficult as it first appeared, but the negative painting of the

delicate veins of the leaf was certainly a challenge (and nature

does it so effortlessly time after time).

When I start drawing an ordinary thing I realize how extraordinary it is, what a

sheer miracle: the branching of a tree, the structure of a dandelion's seed puff.

(Frederick Franck)

Droplets

The term “blaze of glory” takes on new meaning in our Ontario

autumn. Everywhere we look, nature is dressed in her richest

colours – red, gold, burgundy, shades of brown from sand to

mahogany. You can even see hues of pink and blue if you

glance in a certain way.

The painter has to unlearn the habit of thinking that things seem to have the

color which common sense says they ‘really’ have, and to learn the habit of

seeing things as they appear. (Bertrand Russell)

Golden Treasure

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