September

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Walking back up our street after a hike up the neighborhood hill with the dog, I saw fruit on the plum tree. Not unusual, plum trees do bear fruit. But this was in September! Normally the plums are gone by at least mid-August. The leaves were starting to turn colors already.

The sight of the autumn leaves along with the reds, pinks and even violet colors in the fruit, still moist with the morning – was just beautiful. So, I came right back with the car, a ladder and my camera to take a bunch of pictures.

All of this was 5 or 6 years before any painting happened. None of the images were painting-ready from the get go. I spent hours and hours in Photoshop collaging, removing, adding. I loved the colors and the leaves. Still, something was missing.

A Saturday workshop on fruit had me hunting for something to demonstrate on – and I thought: what the hell? I started it for a workshop late in 2017 and then it was usurped by other paintings that insisted on coming through first.

As happens, after it sat patiently unfinished in my studio, I found renewed energy for it. It was high summer and I needed something colorful to work on. The background was fun – a particularly lively fuzzy background where I felt free with color and shape. This is the first thing I’ve painted where there were out-of-focus elements in both the background and the foreground.

The magic in this painting continues to be the fact that there was still fruit so late in the season. It’s not happened since – I’ve been paying attention. That was a special year. I’m happy that it’s been memorialized. Cherry plums in September.

August – September 2018 – 29″x29″ – Watercolor on paper