I have been busy painting my women and nature series this fall. I had hoped to get out more to paint some plein air/ outside. I have been watching the colors, though. It's been an extremely dry late summer and fall - so many of the leaves just dried up on the trees and didn't change to their normally bright colors. Others changed, then promptly dropped their leaves.

I have a maple out front that I had painted in 2007 with bright red and red-orange leaves. That year was much more damp - and the leaves were holding on and bright all the way to Thanksgiving. This year - they are already mostly gone.

I am more aware of the colors of things that I have painted. I have painted the view from my driveway toward the South in summer and in fall. The colors in the fall seem to change daily and hourly. 

This morning they were not the bright colors one might expect this time of year - but the browns and deep reds were interesting nonetheless. The ridges in the background were blending in with the sky - the result of some morning fog.