Using the Colour of Autumn for Seasons' Greetings

Fried Green Tomatoes, pastel on paper, 16.5 x 16.5 cm,October 2018

It's that time of year again when I need to send an image off for a christmas card. I had an idea to use red foliage but on walking around the property, discovered that we don't really have any.  I toyed with the idea of buying one of those bushes that turns flame red at this time of year...  I could plant it, I thought (after I gave it a haircut), but that seemed silly.  I  wondered about knocking on a neighbours door with my pruning shears at the ready, but that felt like procrastination. Instead  I gathered what we had and thought about how the shapes could create a different kind of arrangement. In the end I couldn't resist picking one of my roses, a daisy and a dahlia too. It was a confusing mish mash  that took more focus than ever to untangle.

I made a few changes to this image but it was too dark to photograph the final product, but you get the idea.

A New Year in Intense Colour

Yellow Figurine on Orange, pastel on paper, 16.5 x 16.5 cm

Due to the nature of the time of year and what it means to be me with my family around me, this little drawing was made over the course of a few afternoons as the light faded, inbetween jobs. I knew that I couldn't include anything living in the arrangement because who knew what time I would be able to snatch. So in the spirit of hope in a new year, my still life was all about infectious colour and an ethnic figurine regifted all the way from Boston via Orlando, one of my newest perfect muses. It is in that parallel universe where all the objects come to life and cavort.

HAPPY NEW YEAR