Autumn + art + inspiration
The days get shorter and colder, but I think autumn also brings a special kind of inspiration. It feels like a pulse, a push and pull between bundling up inside with hot chocolate and the urge to be outside in the cold air, the fog, the autumn rains, and watching the landscape transform and get quiet.
Color-wise, I’m not into bright greens like lemon or grass green, so when autumn announces its arrival by slowly painting the leaves in warmer colors, I’m in!
Here up North, these color shifts have been going on for a few weeks, so while we’re still having some summery days in between more moody ones, I’ve been thinking about my work and the autumn-inspired illustrations and sketches of the last few years. So many thoughts seem to be rushing through my mind at the same time, but I’ve tried to pinpoint the aspects of autumn that inspire me the most, the moods I’d like to translate into printmaking, and an attempt to combine these insights with the direction my work has been evolving.
I’ve also gathered a pile of art books to flip through and observe their approach, analyze what I do and don’t like, and perhaps find new things to try. Because the books are all from artists that I like enough to buy expensive books, I’m also browsing the web to see what else I can find.
Here are some works that I came across:
1. “Trees in Autumn” by Georgia O’Keeffe (1920-1921)
Oil on canvas, 25 3/16 x 20 3/16 inches.
2. “View from the studio window” by Olga Boznańska (c. 1912)
3. “Pumpkin” by Yayoi Kusama (1994)
4. “Four Trees” by Egon Schiele (1917)
5. “Autumn” by Mary Cassatt (1880s)
Oil on Canvas, 93 x 65 cm
6. “Red Trunks, Red Leaves” by Lois Dodd (1981)
1981, oil on linen, 50 x 36 inches (127 x 91cm)
7. “The Mulberry Tree In Autumn” by Vincent Van Gogh (1889)
8. “Autumn Leaves Fluttering In The Wind” by Alma Thomas (1973)
Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 50 in. (101.5 x 127.0 cm)
9. “Autumn Woods” by Emily Carr (1911)
10. “Early November Tunnel” by David Hockney (2006)
11. “Höst, Lofoten” by Lars Lerin (1989)
Watercolor on paper, 23 x 17 cm
