I don’t have a favourite season because I like all of them for different reasons. If however I was going to choose one just for the purposes of colour it would have to be Autumn. It’s a major season of change with extremes of colour often on show in plants, with a myriad of colours just in the leaves of one tree. Skies too appear more dramatic, as dusk or sunrise arrives and often display colours only seen at that time of year.
I have done some ‘plein air’ painting out in the countryside, even though it’s not my favourite, as I like my studio comforts. However I do love a challenge, so when one of my days off from the gallery coincided with a sunny autumn day, I took myself off to Allen Banks in Northumberland. The materials I decided to take with me were liquid watercolours and inks, plus some oil pastels and a set of sketching pencils.
I don’t consider myself a ‘natural drawer’, so I don’t do much. I prefer intuitive energetic painting, preferably without brushes but as I was using liquid colours they were somewhat essential. I used the river to wet my paper before I painted for one and another was painted using wet leaves. They weren’t altogether successful but they were fun to create and loosened me up to paint the one you see here now ‘Allen Banks Autumn’.
While the painting was drying I collected some leaves to press and shared my lunch with a Dipper and a Chaffinch or two. It was a really pleasant way to spend an Autumn day and I didn’t miss my studio comforts too much.
The framed work is mixed media on paper
Frame size is 21 inches by 29 inches
Gail Curry
Artist
