Sunday, September 23, 2018

It's Autumn

Yesterday was officially the first day of autumn but our weather has been cooler and crisper for a week or more, and some trees, including the birches behind my place, had already begun their colorful turn. I've been enjoying this maple, for instance, for at least a week. I wasn't planning on taking more fall color pictures to add to my files, but I know I hadn't captured this tree yet, which is by far outshining the other nearby maples I've photographed before.


But what really caught my eye yesterday, as I returned from shopping and turned onto my street, was the warm colors glowing from this marshy patch on the corner. I immediately thought of my piece Adrift, that these were the very same colors I'd put in that quilt!


I looked across the street at a smaller marshy patch to see if it was showing the same rich colors and it was not. Once I'd pulled into the garage, I raced upstairs for my camera and returned to capture this before the bit of sun that was out dipped back behind a cloud.


Not sure what all is in there but I did spot some cattails. But just look at the variety in the palette displayed in these grasses.


It was quite breezy too, causing the grasses to bend and sway in waves. I remember thinking when arranging the "grass" on Adrift that it needed to bend a bit, not stick straight up, just as I was now observing.


How do you capture that movement in a photo? I took a lot of snaps trying to do just that. And then I had that "duh" moment, the muse no doubt reminding me that my camera DOES have a video mode. Here's one of the short movies.


It's been awhile since I've been so taken with a scene that I just kept looking and taking pictures. Didn't I say in my last post how autumn inspires my quilting palette? Sucked me right in again yesterday!

Another artist inspired by nature is the macro-photographer Daniel Sroka, who often picks up leaves on his walks and takes them home to study and photograph. Here is a post from last fall about "some leaves of autumn" as shared on his blog. Also see this grouping of "breakaway" leaves.

In an e-mail where he shares from his Forthright photos, Sroka says something I can so relate to: "I sometimes wonder if I will eventually grow tired of photographing leaves. But every year when autumn arrives, I find myself inspired all over again. In this case, it was the color of the leaf caught my eye: a deep dark red, as if a glass of wine had spilled on a tablecloth." A few years back I thought I was done collecting leaves until that leaf cluster caught my eye, equally deep dark wine red. The moment ended up in one of my artist statements: " I will NOT pick up one more leaf because I have plenty. And then I spotted not a single leaf but this cluster, dark and inviting. Ok, I said. I have nothing like you in my collection so you can come home with me."

And so it goes with us artistic types. Forever at the mercy of the nature that so inspires us.  

5 comments:

The Inside Stori said...

Fabulous color scheme…… I was always smitten with the rich color of soy beans in the fall….corn too…but esp. soy beans…..

Anonymous said...

Your 'Adrift' certainly mimicked the colors from today's photos! I grew up in sunny South Florida & had no real seasons, so changing leaves always catch my attention! Fall is definitely my favorite time of year. Jan in WY

Sherrie Spangler said...

Those glowing grasses are spectacular! I can't wait to see what it inspires.

Michele Matucheski said...

Thanks for the Sroka links. Beautiful stuff! and so readily available. I willtake the time to study the leaves a little more. I loved his spiral Vertigo. And the parts that are out of focus, make it look more like abstracts -- just blotches of colors and comfort.

Michele Matucheski said...

I know what you mean about watching a field of grass flow and sway in the wind. Watching my old Newfie Maggie run was a beauty to behold that way. I have some videos of her somewhere ... Do yoou remember that bit from the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Canada a few years back? That kd was running through a field of wheat swaying in the wind ... then it turned to a whale moving through water. It was an amazing light show!