Inspiration- L’apres Midi D’or

I was hoping to get some drawing done by today but it seems I have come down with a nasty cold (j’ai un rhume) and at this point all I can handle is a little photo editing- maybe a few coherent sentences to 🙂.

So instead of a spooky blotograph for Halloween here are some scenes of splendor from a hike through the woods on a golden afternoon-

When I go hiking I tend to collect fragments of the landscape through the camera rather than sketching in a notepad- after all i have a lot of ground to cover and there are only so many hours in a day. Plus I find the complexity of forms in the Forest almost overwhelming- so taking shots and cropping them down to abstract components makes more sense for me- plus they make nice screen savers when I upload them to my laptop.

I was worried this year as it simply stopped raining in August and was unusually hot through early fall (think mid to upper 90’s at the start of October) but a few periods of cool cloudy days and slow soaking rains brought things back to life. A couple light frosts helped to. I think the fall foliage was the best it’s been in years and I’m really glad I went hiking on tuesday- the weather was perfect and the colors were at their peak. Enjoy!

Hickories in full autumn regalia.

The maples were really spectacular this season.

The spice bushes formed a golden carpet on the forest floor.

Gold was literally seeping out of the woodwork (so to speak).