October has begun to arrive with the bluest of skies after the still warm days of September. This is the coming of the gathering season, the golden days where the earth has started to put on her garniture of glory.
Autumn mornings
Sunshine and crisp air,
Birds and calmness,
Years end and days beginning.
Terri Guillemets
When the first hint of woodsmoke scents the air and the landscape is a patchwork of burnished hues, it is time to get my brushes and paints out and begin to draw the fallen acorns and prickly pinecones littering the garden. Summer has begun to melt away and all the green has turned to gold. What a glorious time of the year! Local curb markets brim with harvest bounty along with heaps of yellow and orange pumpkins.
Come, pensive Autumn with thy clouds, and storms, falling leaves and pastures lost to flowers: A luscious charm hangs on the faded farms
More sweet than summer in her loveliest hours.
John Clare
Most artists who paint enjoy portraying their own surroundings and nature in her beauty. My own lies in the magnificent green of the Appalachian Mountains and the awe of their turning into the warm colors of fall. The famous American painter, Georgia O’Keeffe, found herself in Taos, New Mexico on a visit in 1929. Here she discovered the hard rocks of the west which required a different pallet of colors that reflected nature in another way she had never before experienced. She chose in her art to explore the landscape of northern New Mexico in a way few other painters had been able to do. It was truly love of the land that made her move permanently to Albuquerque in 1949 where she found a place to paint that was remote and exotic from her life in the Midwest and in New York. It was here she lived until she died in 1986. There is an impressive amount of her oils to enjoy at the Museum of Fine Arts of New Mexico. We are also able to view her work at the Reynolda Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, NC.
Is this not the perfect autumn day?
Just the still melancholy that I love –
That makes nature and life harmonize.
George Eliot
Our Lake Lure artis are busy getting ready for a new season to begin with art shows in the offing and other activities to share with the public. Be sure to join us if you are interested in being a part of a very fascinating and active group of local friends where love of the arts draws us together twice a month on the 2nd and 4th Thursday mornings.
Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather
And a little music played outdoors.
John Keats
