69) Autumn Gold

11 x 14” watercolor on 300 pound cold press paper - $125

The first of November brought an unexpected warm autumn day. The harvest had past, throngs of pickers gone, the store doors closed for the season and yet I loved this short time of the year at the orchard. Despite the maples, oaks and birch having lost their mantles, the apple trees cover the 100 acres of the orchard with a sea of yellow and orange … an Autumn Gold. Just a few apples cling to the branches with a carpet of fallen fruit making for slower walks.

With one last painting before the arrival of winter in me, I sat down at the north end of the orchard on that Sunday afternoon. Georgia’s patience waned and I painted quickly. The red tailed hawk circled slowly above while the distant call of Canadian Geese winged south. This is the final work of my third year creating at the orchard. Like the geese I was preparing to leave this marvelous place for a new home, closing with the gold, purples, blues and reds of the trees I had been blessed to sit beneath for three wondrous years.