Mystery Botanicals #1

The Jittery Neighbour

My 3 children all went back to school today so I am happy to take up my brush again. I am jumping in once more to paint one-a-day nature botanicals in my yard. This time it is fall. Plants will be going to seed, bearing fruit, going to sleep or dying. Plants continue on after winter by a sleeping root or a seed left behind. I am thinking about the dark side of things of death, endings and the mystery of why I am here and also the complexity of leaving behind offspring.  If the spring was Romantic novels then the fall is Mystery novels. So lets explore the darker side of life.

My mom is a great reader of Mystery novels.

This painting is red and black but I pop in bits of grey blue sky to make holes in the flatness. A large orange and black butterfly flaps and flaps around and so I smear in all its jittery movement. I imagine the innocent neighbour getting all jittery as she discovers more about her neighbours goings on. The crab apples dangle. They are such a dark red fruit.

mystery botanicals #1  The Jittery Neighbour, September 7,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" heavily overcast, 3.5h

happy to be painting again so I took a timed photo of the moment -  there was no one to ask as all my kids are back in school.

I can see this baby squirrel through my fence. It is eating a crab apple

a flock of chickadees land in the crab apple tree and eat the bugs.