A Bit of Spice

It is as though a 'Bit of Spice' has entered my life. My last post I wrote about losing touch with my creative side, of lacking courage. Would the desire to paint and create in its many forms emerge once more? Yes! Yes! Yes! I am so grateful to have it once again highlighting  my days. Just to paint makes me happy, no masterpieces here! Exploring-- having fun once again in the world of paint, brushes and canvas; wondering what will pop out of my head.

We are having beautiful weather absolutely wonderful, refreshing, a welcome relief. The maple trees on our street are turning burgundy, copper and gold. The birds are flocking to the little bird feeders outside our windows...do they know that winter is coming as they peck away at the tiny nutty-brown seeds?  Sunday I pulled out my enormous blue enamel pot and cooked chili, spicy hot with  rust colored spices like cumin, chili and paprika. Splurged on the happiest of flowers,TWELVE sumptuous Sunflowers....which prompted me to re-read some of my favorite van Gogh passages and sigh in deep pleasure revisiting his magnificent Sunflower paintings. Do you think that Vincent knows how many people he has given such pleasure to? Whom he has inspired to create against all odds. To develop their own unique style?

I rejoice at this the time of year when I fall in love once more with the brilliant color of ORANGE!!! Eons ago when I was in junior high our school colors were Orange and  Black...ugh! I said I would never look at orange again, even boycotted eating oranges; I so disliked our school colors. But as I grew a little more open minded, and  many moons passed, I slowly began a love affair with ORANGE....an autumn audition of flamboyant colors.

They say that orange engages enthusiasm and creativity. Did you know that Lady Luck's color is orange?  I read somewhere that CURIOSITY is the driving characteristic of orange and that accompanies an exploration of new things....hmmm like creativity, passion and joy?

A few years ago, these small canvases were inspired after an autumnal drive in western Maryland.

This could be ANY PLACE, but it is really just a few miles from our, then home,  in Maryland. Rural Maryland rivals Vermont. Simply colorific!

Memory serves me well, this building was truly this PURPLE, what a perfect combination with the rusts, gold and oranges of pumpkins, squash and drying corn. The squirrels  have a 'field day' with so much bounty to choose from.

It isn't that I don't enjoy eating eggplant, but much happier painting it!!

It just occurred to me that each of these paintings have a combination of Orange and Purple....

I have such gratitude in my heart, for the emergence of DESIRE. Desire to paint and create, fill vases with Sunflowers, tie a purple scarf in my hair, catch up with van Gogh my very most favoritist painter ever and .....

Explore pumpkin patches and corn mazes with two little Funny Bunnies here in Charlotte, our new home. I have discovered it is just as gorgeous and lovely here as it was in Maryland, because Home is truly where the Heart is.

We spent over an hour in this corn maze. We had a few pangs of worry if we would really walk out before night fall!!! Smile.

Our little Funny Bunnies must have felt like Jack and the Beanstalk, diminutive, petite and swallowed by the stiff arms of the cornstalks.

Rustic crates filled with orange globes, destined to decorate someone's porch; be carved into some fantastic shape; or pureed into a delicious aromatic pumpkin pie!

Dreaming in Orange. It has been said that if a change of any kind is needed in life, just burn an orange candle for 7 nights!!  Maybe a 'cat nap' in the middle of a pumpkin pile will do as well.