Colors of Autumn

A few months ago I shared with you the color blocks I'd done of the New Mexico landscape in summertime, with the intention of eventually using them for monotypes and ceramics. As I'd mentioned in that post, my initial plan was to paint the summer colors, but then I decided to cover an entire year in order to see how the landscape changed with the seasons. 

Well, I've found plenty of autumnal colors to keep my brush occupied, so here are a few of them.

These two blocks were painted after a trip to Ruidoso. The top one depicts different grasses and plants I saw on a hill, while the bottom one was inspired by a plant I saw. The leaves were green at the base, then turned orange, and finally purple at the tips. 

This one was done in Cloudcroft, and features the colors I was seeing in the foliage around mid-October. The black stripes represent the branches I saw peering through the richly-colored leaves.

The rest of these were done in Roswell. Some were taken from individual leaves, others are inspired by entire vistas. Regardless, they all show that the Roswell palette consists of far more than brown and yellow, so before you tell me that Roswell has no color, take a look at these:

Dusk, with flocks of snow geese flying to Bitter Lakes. There weren't this many, but that's the joy of artistic license.

There's a shrub by the Museum that has the most beautiful leaves, veined with red, green, and yellow.

Pink sky and mint-green bushes I saw while walking to the post office one evening.

Overlooking Lea Lake at dawn.

A single leaf I found while walking home from work.

A color explosion in the shrubs by Bottomless Lakes. I'm channeling Elmer Schooley's Wilderness paintings here.

With winter bringing early evenings, I've been able to see some fantastic sunsets while walking home from work lately, and definitely plan on incorporating them into the new season's blocks. As I've said before, there is beauty all around, it's just a matter of keeping your mind and eyes open to it.