thinking about leaves

Edmonton has completely transitioned to winter and with that comes the stress and beauty of the cold. As I was working on my leaf painting tonight I was thinking about winter driving and how dangerous it can be. Roads can be icy, with low visibility or deep with snow. Accidents often happen in those conditions and I find myself thinking about death much more often in the winter. But, it's also a beautiful time with clear sparkling days, and bright, low angled sun shining in your face. And possibly my favourite thing: all the tracks in the snow. From rabbits, squirrels, birds, cats, dogs, coyotes, people, bikes, and skis. I absolutely adore seeing tracks in the snow as a reminder that life is all around, busy as ever. 

My leaf painting is capturing a small glimpse in time. The leaves fell on the ground in October. I picked them up, and their colour starting changing even faster when I brought them inside. I quickly took a picture of them arranged together in a curated pile so that I would have something to paint in the winter that wasn't a "live" still life (because I can't have two still lifes set up and I need more than one painting to work on). So, I work on fall leaves captured by a camera as my mind if captured by winter thoughts.