busy october

october field sketch

Are we all busier in October than we are in other months?  Is the grass greener in October? or does it shine bright, emerald, because of the clear, piercing light all around and because of all the colors which are not green all around?  (Friends in Taiwan told me the sharp light of Autumn is called the tiger's eye.)

I intended to work more on this little pastel painting.  But when I saw it after a day away, I thought it got to the activity level of the colors all around in the fields here in mid-October, or something.  Something in this sketch resonated a bit:  oh, yes.

I have been dashing to get work done before all the colors are spent.  Leaves have come down, "in showers," Marge said today.  Many trees are bare now.  I saw this chickadee (below) flitting and dashing, hardly placing both feet down.  I know that there is another chickadee sketch here in Ai-jane.  When I have a moment to check, I'll see how the two sketches compare.  Surely last year also, we-- the chickadees and me--were intently flitting, sketching.

autumn chickadee

black- capped chickadee

Busy, and bossy, a pair of black-capped chickadees at my feeder just above Alice's shoulder while Alice and I paused beside the feeder during a yard-scoping tour. Buzzing at us in flight and in voice, these two, pretty darn fearlessly. I did this 5x5" sketch of a chickadee in the late spring. The bird is remarkably still here!

Alice told me about an "Ay" from Egyptian history, someone around the court of Tutankhamen, also pronounced "eye." Maybe you all know about Ay? He is not familiar to me, so I'll not list this Ay in my profile here.