Golden Afternoons of Autumn

I attended (and helped hang) the Peace Watercolour Society's annual Fall show on the weekend. This is my third show with the society, and I can't tell you how much I enjoy being a part of this group of passionate watercolour painters.

This year our show, which rotates between four communities in the Peace River region, was hosted by the Beaverlodge Cultural Centre in Beaverlodge, Alberta. The cultural centre is a historic former hospital and since our show coincided with Alberta Cultural Days, there were a few other artistic events happening in the community through the weekend as well. I have five paintings in the show, and if you are in the area, why not stop by the gallery and see them? The show hangs until October 23rd, 2014.

I've been enjoying painting the colours of fall. I tend to gravitate toward cool tones of blue, violet and rose, but in the fall my palette fills with juicy warm red, gold and umbers as I drink in the colours of the foliage, trees and fields. Harvest is creamy butter-yellow. Willows are red-violet and the aspens frame it all in hues of gold.

"Golden Afternoon" watercolour, 11" x 11" (28 x 28 cm) available for purchase

Last Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving falls the second Monday of October, just 2 weeks away), my sister and I ran down to the Peace River from my grandparents' house. It's a beautiful 10km loop and I carried my heavy Nikon DSLR the whole way. As we climbed the final hills leaving the river, the afternoon was waning, and the world was lit with that perfect golden light. I was so thankful to be able to spend the day with my family, the strength to run and explore the river hills, the beautiful place where I live. I feel like I captured a bit of that in this painting, and that makes me very happy.