Fall Unfurling

Watercolor, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

This is one of the paintings I have been working on this week. It only needs a few last finishing touches so maybe I will finish it this weekend - I hope so! The gorgeous colors of autumn are really inspiring me as they do every year. I have a hard time not painting autumn all year round - well, sometimes I just go for it anyway. But this time of year it is pretty much required and I am happy to oblige.

I've also been working on more little paintings with pencil and watercolor. One can really make art on the go with very little luggage - I carry a few bits of paper and a mechanical pencil w/ an eraser and I am ready to go! (I usually do the watercolors when I get home but I did sit at a restaurant early this week with my homemade travel it of Daniel Smith watercolors and got a lot done!) I was there for a drawing group and a man at the next table over was working on an amazing piece using just a number 2 pencil so the message is this : you don't need a lot of trappings to make art. All you need is the willingness to open yourself up and come to the page.

In other news! To celebrate a month of spooks, I am having an Etsy sale. Use the coupon code:

october2013

to get 13% off through Monday at:

www.etsy.com/shop/meinoel

Meandering Watercolor

Watercolor, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

This is something I was working on last week, and should get back to. I miss having more time to paint but I am making an effort to at least paint for a little while most days.  I can really tell a difference if I stop for even a few days -- I have to ease my way back into it if I do. Maybe my paints and brushes miss me when I'm "gone."   Actually I have a couple of paintings I am working on now - though more usually I focus on one at a time.

This painting is a good antidote to today. The fog never entirely cleared. I work on First Hill - also called Pill Hill, because there are several hospitals there. Looking down across downtown to the water,  I could not tell where the water ended and the sky began. The horizon was lost. You just had to take it on faith that there were mountains there, across the water, that you were not looking out from the end of the world.  

Halloween Tree

halloween tree, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

"The wind outside nested in each tree, prowled the sidewalks in invisible treads like unseen cats.
Tom Skelton shivered. Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows' Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet. Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades. From kitchen windows drifted two pumpkin smells: gourds being cut, pies being baked.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree


The title of this painting was taken from Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree, quoted above. The inspiration was all around me - tree changing color, piles of pumpkins at the market, and the glorious autumn sunsets.

Halloween Tree
8 x 10"
watercolor & ink
Available on Etsy!

I've also got some sugar skull prints on etsy, if you want to celebrate the season!