AN ARTIST’S PERSPECTIVE

Thought of the Season

AUTUMN 2020 🍁🍂...even the Seasons are wishing this year would end!

Yes, I know I’m early, and it’s not officially Autumn for a few weeks yet, but oh! I’m longing for it to arrive. Always my favourite season, but this year even more so perhaps. And I’ve already seen signs of Autumn in the fields and hedgerows, and some trees already showing some autumn colours in their leaves ... and oh, the glorious Rowan trees laden with red berries. I’ve even watched as V-formations of distant birds appear to be heading south to migrate - and it’s still just the middle of August.

But I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks the Seasons have speeded up this year. After a fairly mild Winter, we experienced a very warm and early Spring, with record high temperatures. We’ve seen many different species of birds in our garden, and clutch after clutch of baby birds, long after they usually stop laying eggs and hatching chicks. Then Summer seemed to arrive early too, again hot and dry periods followed by torrential rain and thunderstorms - interspersed with some cooler, windy weather reminiscent of early Autumn.

And now here we are, still two weeks away from the meteorological beginning of Autumn, which is officially 1st September, and about five weeks away from the Autumn Equinox on 21st/22nd September, and yet it already feels distinctly autumnal this last few days.

I’m usually an early riser, waking just as dawn is breaking, and so over the course of the last couple of months, since the Summer Solstice, I’ve noticed the sunrise getting later and later, the quality of light deepening, shadows lengthening, and the sun turning more golden as the summer wanes. There’s a definite mellowing to the colours of nature that makes my heart sing. As an artist, these colours are so much more enjoyable to paint than the bright blues, whites and yellows often seen in summer, that I find too glaring and uninteresting.

Give me misty greys and dusky blues, russet reds, mossy greens, yellow ochres, deep purples and magentas, rich and delicious chocolate browns...... ahhhhhhhhh yes! 😊