Here are four new paintings that celebrate the shift into autumn.
Glorious Fall
Glorious Fall. 20″ x 20″, Acrylic on Canvas, © 2022 Cedar Lee
This painting is full of warmth.
The branches fill the canvas, reaching out in every direction. The bright sunlight glows from the center, making parts of the trunk light up almost in white.
The branches darken as they reach towards the periphery of the canvas, some of the extremities almost in black.
The pink and gold colors are warm, and the details delicate.
One of my biggest inspirations in my art is the desire to paint light in new ways. It sounds trite to say I have a fascination with light, because our eyes perceiving light is the foundation of all vision.
All visual artists have a fascination with light!
But the concept of light truly inspires me: the duality of light and darkness, and the metaphorical meanings of light.
A person’s “light” is something special about them; it’s the gift that they have to give the world. Keeping your light shining, not letting the difficulties in life dim your light, is a worthy goal.
The Future
The one-point perspective of the road flanked by rows of trees gives the feeling that we are on a journey.
But there is some mystery about where we are headed, as the point we are moving towards is hazy, disappearing from our view into a pure white light that removes all the details.
The future is an unknown, a clean, white, blank slate. It’s full of opportunity.
The shift into autumn after a long hot summer is comforting and welcome.
We can feel the shift in the slant of the afternoon sun and the slightest hint of a chill in the morning air.
The warm colors of the fall leaves feel like a celebration.
We’re looking forward to the coziness of the next season, and the chance to wind down and rest.
Autumn Sunshine
In this painting, I wanted to paint details so subtle that you have to look closely to notice them.
The right side of the canvas is filled with a light so bright it almost completely washes out the details.
But when you look closely, you can see the subtle shapes of grasses and thickets of shrubbery in the background, and tiny hints of tree branches lit up in the palest shades of pink and gold.
The details on the left side of the image are more solid, emerging from the canvas in high contrast.
The left side of the tree is grounded in the present moment, while the right side awash in that overwhelming light represents a shift into the future, a different kind of presence where the details don’t matter as much and we’re just along for the ride.
I love listening to guided visualizations to relax or fall asleep, and one of the most common visualizations that people use is to imagine a soft, warm light washing over your body, cleaning out all of your stress, and setting your mind at ease.
I think about these things and want my paintings to have those qualities and metaphors for people. Like a person can be a source of light, I want my art to be a source of light.
When people look at my paintings, I want them to feel warm sunlight washing over them and easing their minds. I want them to feel a little bit more alive and ready to shine their own light.
These three paintings share the same color palette, and look fantastic when displayed all together!
Opening
This painting of an opening in the sky in the center of a circle of autumn trees is simple, elegant and clean.
At first glance, it has a pleasing radial symmetry and a calming effect.
When you look closer, you will notice the many irregularities in the organic shapes, each tree unique, reaching out its branches, dancing up in the sky.
The branches are tiny and delicate in the distance.
The last of the autumn leaves, in shades of brown, red, yellow and orange, hang at the ends of twigs, about to blow off into the blustery sky.
In this painting, I capture the excitement of the change of seasons, and also the soft, warm feeling of light.
Contact me if you’re interested in any of these originals or prints of these paintings.
