The Autumn Equinox has come and gone, but it did not leave any cool temperatures in its wake. I am glad we are no longer experiencing the 100-plus Fahrenheit weather of the summer, so the 90 F days do feel like a cool wave. I am not yet ready to break out my sweaters or even my hoodies, but I am packing away my light weight brightly colored clothing in favor of more seasonal tones.
Also, I am still not ready to exercise outside because what Autumn does bring is an intense pollen season. Because of climate change, the fall pollens and their havoc on the human body are coming earlier than they once did. Just as everything pumpkin spice once came when the frost was on the pumpkin, now we get it when the daytime temperatures are in the 90’s in the southern states and the evening temperatures do not yet go below 70 F.
My dear mother called this the “transitional time” between true seasons. Corporate America now feels the need to rush the seasons earlier each year, so pumpkin spice everything is available before the frost is on the pumpkins even up north. I have put my autumn decoration on my front door in honor of the season. It is a form of “wish casting” to bring the cooler temperatures to my neighborhood.
Up north, the National Weather Service (NWS) offices in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin issued a frost advisory for the morning of the fall equinox, with an office in Michigan also issuing a freeze warning, as temperatures plunged alongside the arrival of fall. The region typically sees its first freeze sometime in late September or early October, making the chilly weather this week a little early for normal conditions. Here in Hot Springs National Park, our first frost usually comes in early November and the first killing frost arrives after Thanksgiving. By this time, the Christmas season is already in full swing! At least we do not live in Florida. There the incongruity of paper snowflakes, palm trees, and a fur robed jolly old elf is laughable.
Our Fall Flowers were an exercise for our Friday class to mix the colors of the autumn palette in nature. We had two reds in the flowers: the roses were cool alizarin, while the variegated flowers were a warm shade of cadmium red. When we mix colors, we can get off-looking shades because we use a warm color with a cool color. Instead, we need to keep our mixtures in the same temperature family: cool or warm. Experience is the best teacher in this respect, once again.
We can mix all the colors of this flower arrangement with our primary colors, especially if we have warm and cool options for those primary colors, as well as white. I never use tube black, but mix my own from the ultramarine blue, cadmium red, and add some cadmium yellow. This also can be a good brown depending on how much red you add. We also need a cool yellow, known as Lemon or Hansa Yellow, and a warmer shade of blue, such as Cobalt Blue. We can mix every color in this flower arrangement with these colors and Alizarin Crimson. If we were lazy, we would look for an earth tone, yellow ocher, but we can approximate this color with cadmium yellow, a touch of red, some ultramarine, and a bit of white. We do not need a huge amount of red and blue, for these are strong pigments. Experiment or trial and error will get us accustomed to finding the proper proportions.
Cadmium itself is a toxic heavy metal, but we do not classify cadmium pigments as dangerous for ordinary use since the level of soluble cadmium in the pigments is so low they need no hazard warning. We can still use it in paint because the ratio of pigment to binder is low. They pose no greater risk after swallowing or breathing in than other pigment types. We do not use cadmium pigments for certain applications, but this does not apply to artists’ colors because the amount of material is low. However, eating the pigment will not end well! It would depend on the dose, but the yuck factor alone would keep me from guzzling the goo. (At least I am teaching adults, and I do not have to remind them not to ingest the paint, unlike my kindergarten classes of yesteryear.)
Our Friday class has returning students who have enjoyed (or suffered under) my teaching skills for several years. One lesson they have all learned completely is to follow their own heart and to interpret the subject matter before them as it speaks to them in the voice only they can hear. Unlike the art education classes I took, which always had the instructor’s model as the goal to judge all the students’ works for their grades, I always graded on improvement. I believed if children had to take art to graduate, the majority had no interest or affinity for the practice of the craft. Only a positive attitude, good behavior, and the consequences of repeated efforts would pay off for the whole group. I have taken this belief into every other skill I have had to get in my own life. Vigorous work, with the helpful critiques of an experienced mentor or guide, can take a person farther than merely working hard and doing the same thing repeatedly.
Pigment makers once made Carmine Lake, a cool red, by crushing the shells of the cochineal beetle, a native, tiny scale insect of South America, to make the red dye. The modern pigment is Quinacridone Red. Alizarin Crimson is a better substitute because it is light fast and will not turn brown when exposed to the light. By mixing our own colors, artists encourage thinking, rather than mere responding in the moment. That latter choice has its place, but if we also have the goal of stimulating our neuron pathways, then we will test them on occasion! Being in community, sharing our lives, learning we can ask for help, and still be valued and loved are important. These are life skills we can learn in art class beyond how to draw the vase in perspective. That visual representation language is an acquired skill, just as the social graces take time to build trust.
Gail S., who loves the outdoors, chose to paint only a few meaningful flowers in a field of green grass. If we yearn for a better time, we can make this world of lush, sweet, and richness on our canvas, even if our world has drought, hunger, and war. We do not have to paint what our eye sees. We can paint what our heart wants to see instead.
Mike had a difficult week in his professional life. Sometimes terrible events happen in the lives of the ones we have been employed to serve. Art class then becomes a place to organize the art supplies that are still viable and toss those which are beyond hope. This housekeeping project gives us an opportunity to rid our hearts and souls of unworthy thoughts and find a space for a fresh start. With a fresh start, we can see anew. My mother always said, “A new broom sweeps clean.” Sometimes we do a little cleaning up of our studio to get a fresh inspiration. This has always worked for me. It might work for you if you are struggling to get going creatively.
Because we only have a two-hour class session, we do not always get to complete our work. Some projects we can carry across to another class time, but others we need to finish at home. Note the fine perspective of the base of the vase. It sits properly on the table. That is a learned skill. Yet Gail was unhappy with her choice of her variegated background and table colors. When she made those flat and clean, then her flowers needed sharpening up also. Once we change one part of our work, then we must bring the rest into the same state.
This is the FORD experience: “Fix Or Repair Daily” for vehicles also applies to our artworks. Our experience will tell us when to stop, or we will abandon our work, having learned many things, but finally having overworked it. Knowing when to stop work is a skill we learn by taking a painting to excess or not doing enough. The ancient wisdom of the aurea mediocritas or the Golden Mean, is “nothing to excess.” Yet our art works should have something of an “excess” in them to pique our interest, or they would blend into the walls on which they hang! This too is a skill we learn from doing and exposure to great art.
If I am going to work for only a brief period, I also will make artistic decisions to limit details of the subject before me. Although the flower arrangement had many leaves, I chose to paint only a few. Likewise, I did not paint all the flowers. Cameras must see with an unblinking eye, but artists have license to ignore that which does not suit them. I do not remember if I stood while I painted, so this could account for my open vase rim. In any event, I was as interested in the vase as the flowers. My water is more congealed than fluid, but at least I noted its presence. I rushed the suggestion of the pomegranate and its shadow at the last minute.
The minutes become important as these autumn days move toward the winter equinox. September 30th brought us the latest sunrise 7:06 AM and the earliest sunset was 41 minutes earlier at 6:57 PM on the same day. October will bring the northern hemisphere cooler weather because the days are shorter, the nights longer, and the earth is beginning to tilt away from the sun. I met a big haired blonde lady from Chicago at the post office the other day who wore a lovely black trouser outfit. I did a double take because I thought she favored the late Dolly Parton. She remarked it was much hotter here in autumn than she thought it would be. I told her, “Your outfit will still be great at Thanksgiving! With a light sweater for the evening.”
My local craft store already has Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decorations on sale now. So, the New Year’s paraphernalia may be out before the World Series ends. My daddy used to say, “Time flies when you are having fun!” It goes faster the older I get! Also, I do not move as quickly as I once did. I still have delusions of youth, while my aging body refuses to cooperate with my mind. At least I recognize I live in a world of delusions, and I am not Wonder Woman in reality. Until the frost is on the pumpkin, or next week, which ever comes first, I wish each of you
Joy, peace, and time for art,
CORNELIA
Freeze warnings issued as Midwest hit by first major cold blast of fall
Hot Springs September Weather, Average Temperature (Arkansas, United States) – Weather Spark
Colour story: Cadmium Red – Winsor & Newton NA
https://www.winsornewton.com/blogs/articles/cadmium-red
Smarthistory – The bug that had the world seeing red
https://smarthistory.org/cochineal/
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