Patterns In the World: An artist's view on color and texture found in nature

Have you ever looked at the sky, in the middle of the day, and noticed that the clouds are not pure white, but have flecks of yellow and grey? Have you ever looked closely at an apple and seen not just red or green, but shades of yellow and flecks of white upon the skin? Have you looked in the mirror and noticed that your eyes are not just one color, whether it be brown or blue or gold or green or something in between, but varying shades wrapping around the ring of your pupil? Flecks of gold, halos of hazel, eyes are as unique as the people they belong to. An artist's eyes may not be strikingly different that others, but they see the world in a completely different way.

The details of the bark on a tree, the fine hairs on a dog's snout, the opaque shades of a bottle cap contrasted with the gleaming glass it tops. Textures and colors, lines and curves that turn themselves into drawings as the universe paints the most beautiful scenes known to humankind. Beauty in the mundane, the slightly raised ridges on a park bench as the paint slowly drifts away from heat and use. Shimmering gauze over the road as the morning mist slowly disappears as the sun rises. So many things to notice, it's impossible to take in everything at once.

One thing I'm probably more obsessed with than others is the colors of the seasons. I love the changes throughout the year as the weather shifts and the earth responds in kind. Plantings growing and dying, animals appearing and going to sleep, the endless circle of life.

Fall is my favorite, full of ambers and deep rust reds, the leafs turning from green to gold as the chlorophyl degrades and the flavonoids reign. The deep purple of grapes as the curling vines turn to mahogany. Pumpkin oranges of squashes scattered in the garden. The brilliant red of fresh apples, turned pale with the making of cider or crisps.

Though winter is cold, it is beautiful with the sparkling white and pure ice blue of fresh snow. Snowflakes in their vast beauty of shapes and size, the preciousness of their fleeting presence as they begin to melt with your touch. The evergreens standing strong regardless of the time of year. The bright lights and human-made decorations of the holidays.

Then come spring, pale greens slowly appear, breaking up the vast brown and grey of the end of winter months. The first flowers of spring, soft in their pinks and white, slowly brighting as the brilliant yellow of the daffodils and dandelions begin to bloom.

Before you know it, spring has turned to summer. The shocking green sweeping over the land in a patchwork blanket of deep evergreen to showy new grass to the multitude of shades all plants have. The colors of the sky seem heightened in the summertime. Sunrise, sunset, the night sky, the stark blues of a clear day. No words can truly describe the unfathomable beauty the sky can create. Ever-changing, ever-glowing, an artist's whose brush dips into the largest palette and paints the grandest scenes above our little planet earth. The urge to paint each one fills me, though it is an impossible task, sometimes I try. The sky always does it better.

Nevertheless, though my art may be as imperfect as I, the beauty is in the process. The trial. The challenge of turning idea into reality as images from the natural world or my imagination are put onto paper in whatever form I desire. While I doubt I could ever truly capture a image onto paper or canvas as well as what I see in my mind's eye, the goal for me is to capture a piece of it. The essence or the feeling of the moment or subject if not the exact likeness.

I hope if nothing else this post encourages you to look a little closer at what's around you. Whether inside or out, exotic or mundane, you can find a bit of beauty, a tad of curiosity, about anything around you. Creation, not consumption, is what keeps the world turning. I challenge you to do a bit of creating this week. Whether artwork, movement, signing, cooking, connection, change in this world...make something instead of taking something. (This includes making time for yourself or loved ones, bonus points if you make something together and share).

Best of luck in all of your endeavors,

An Adventurous Aquarius