"Summer's End"

24" x 18"
acrylic on canvas

Another painting completed a few weeks ago, that speaks of the fragility of all things born from the earth, and the inherent order and cycles that occur in the natural world. I came upon the concept for this in late summer/early fall when everything around us begins to slowly change to give way to a new season. These massive, mammoth sunflowers that grew in the garden and turned their heavy heads to follow the sun all summer long, had bowed, welcoming the autumn. When it was time to prepare the ground for next summer, I set the heavy, freshly cut bunch down and looked at them, finding them to be symbolic of so many things. A moth then peeked at me from behind a petal. This image flashed in my head on the spot. I love when that happens.

It's a natural feeling to want to hold on to things you know you can't preserve forever, and, before turning these majestic flora over to the birds and squirrels to feast on, I felt the need to record their beauty and the power of what they represented to me that day.