Let’s Paint September

An invitation to notice and paint the colors of the changing season

Continuing the conversation from this month’s The Artful Season letter

September has a way of announcing itself quietly.

The calendar may tell us that summer is still here, but the light seems to know first. It falls a little differently through the trees. Mornings feel cooler. Fruit ripens. A leaf here and there begins to change.

This month, I’d like to invite you to notice those small shifts with me, and perhaps capture a few of them with paint.

Not by making a finished painting.

Not by worrying about whether you know how to paint.

Simply by looking closely at the season in front of you.

A Little Paint, A Little Practice

A few years ago, I found myself needing to reconnect with my paintbox. So I gave myself a very simple project: For one month, go outside and paint one color swatch each day from something that caught my eye. One of those little blobs of color was of a lichen I found, painted on a scrap of watercolor paper only a 2 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches in size. Along with the color swatch, I wrote: Jan. 7 - 2023, Lichen, seeds of doubt. Obviously, I just wasn't feeling it yet.

It wasn't meant to become a finished piece of art. That wasn't the point. The point was to open my paintbox. To mix a color. To put my brush into water. To be out in nature. To notice something. And then to do it again the next day. Somewhere in that month, through simple repetition, painting began to feel fun again.

That is the spirit I'd like to bring to our September Creative Practice.

Notice → Mix → Gather → Draw → Paint

Notice

Take your paints along on a walk, or simply sit somewhere outdoors where you can look around.

What colors tell you that September is arriving where you live? Perhaps the green of summer is beginning to soften. Maybe there are berries turning red, grasses becoming gold, purple asters blooming, or the first rusty edge appearing on a leaf. You don't need to know the name of the color.

Just notice it.

Mix

Choose one color that catches your eye and see if you can mix something close to it.

Start by wetting a small spot on your watercolor paper and then add paint to it make a small swatch. Then try another. Your colors don't have to match perfectly. This isn't a color-matching test. You're simply giving yourself permission to look a little longer and notice a little more carefully. You might jot down a word or two beside each swatch: apple red, faded grass, September sky, leaf edge.

These tiny notes can become a record of the season.

Gather

While you're out, gather a leaf or two that interests you. It doesn't have to be the prettiest leaf you can find. A curled edge, a tiny hole, an unusual shape, or the first blush of autumn color may be exactly what makes you stop and look. Bring your leaf home with you. It will become your subject.

Draw

I don't want you to get hung up on the drawing part. You can place your leaf on a piece of watercolor paper and trace around it. Or you can use the leaf drawing I've included in this month's Companion Leaf as your guide.

To transfer my drawing, you can use graphite transfer paper or simply shade the back of the printed leaf with a soft graphite pencil, place it graphite-side down on your watercolor paper, and trace over the lines. You'll be making your own transfer paper.

You can also look at the leaf and draw it freehand, or make your own loose interpretation of its shape. There is no prize for making the most botanically accurate leaf.

When you were a child, you drew and painted without wondering if you knew how. Let's borrow a little of that spirit.

Paint

Now for the fun part. Using a clean brush, paint clear water inside your leaf drawing. You want the paper damp and glistening, but not swimming in water. I like to spritz my paints with a little water using a small spray bottle. Keep your color swatches nearby as a reference while you paint.

Pick up a bit of color and gently touch your brush to the wet paper. Let the color move. Add another color nearby. Watch what happens when they meet. 

You can encourage the paint into certain areas with your brush, but try not to control every little thing. Watercolor has a beautiful way of making discoveries of its own.

Let some colors mingle. Allow some areas to remain lighter. Add another touch of pigment while the paper is still damp if you'd like. Then stop before you think you should. Let it dry. You can go back and add some detail with a small brush, or pencil, or both.

Your September leaf does not need

to be perfect.

It only needs to remind you of

something you noticed.

Your September Companion Leaf

I've created this month's Companion Leaf

as a place to carry the practice a little further. There's room to record a few of the colors you notice, along with space for your own thoughts

and observations.

Keep it nearby as you work through the practice, tuck it into a journal afterward, or simply add it to the growing collection we're beginning together.

Get September's Companion Leaf

A few simple supplies

And please use what you already have. You don't need professional watercolor supplies to join me. A simple watercolor set, a brush, some paper and a #2 pencil are enough. Even a child's watercolor paintbox will work beautifully for this practice.

If you're curious about some of the supplies I use in my own studio, I've gathered those separately in The Artist's Cupboard. They are simply things I've found useful in my own creative practice, not things you need in order to begin. Visit The Artist's Cupboard

A Thought to Keep

Perhaps what we paint this month matters a little less than what happens when we begin looking for something to paint. We notice the red beginning to appear on an apple. The way green changes as summer wanes. The shape of a leaf we might otherwise have walked past. The particular blue of a September sky. And for a few moments, we are paying attention to the season we're actually living in.

That may be reason enough to open the paintbox.

With heart,

Karen