Summer into Autumn

This is how it feels every year when we pass from summer to fall. I love them both. I always feel, though, like the year is going too fast when we get to late August and early September. I feel like a small child over a parent’s shoulder, looking back on something I want more of, reaching for it while being carried off to bed (too early). This captures that, for me.

This pastel followed a truly terrible one that I finished and then (crumple, crumple, crumple, tear, tear, tear, sound of match being struck…). So it was great when this one started to come together into something meaningful. I changed some parts of it several times to make the message stronger, or to tie it all together. That included coloring over another set of birds (after taking the trouble to pastel around them, which is challenging with an object as blunt as a stick of chalk). Sometimes it does’t feel finished in some portion and then I add a bit of just one other color and it suddenly pops to life. I love that about pastels or paintings.

18 x 24 inches, pastel and Sharpie on kraft paper.