Vermilion Summer - Part 4

This was not meant to continue the series… It was going to be a drawing about something else. It was going to be birds in flight (the pile of lines that started it were blind contoured from an amazing Tove Jansson drawing of characters on the beach with a big white balloon and amazing gawky graceful slightly upside-down-looking birds with huge wings, so I wasn’t surprised that birds emerged (though many were going the other way… weirdly). But the devilish looking character at the top, and the storm (who has shown up with almost exactly this same shape in an earlier pastel) were recognizable. That meant this was also about summer, and the vermilion was still in play. (Only 3/4 of a stick left when I started this - I crossed my fingers. I ransacked all my boxes of pastels, no more vermilion.)

The next thing I understood was that the green compound leaf from # 3 was supposed to be on a vermilion ground on the lower bird, and that meant flowers for the other bird. Everything else fell into place as the piece progressed. I trusted the muse and dove in.

18 x 24 - Pastel and Sharpie on kraft paper

This is called “Summer’s End” or “The Rout of Summer”