SPRING*SUMMER*AUTUMN*WINTER

Sometimes you have a great idea in your head, and you get out your paints, and you start working, preparing all the pieces, only to find out, when you're putting them all together, that it just isn't going to work.

I wanted to contribute something to this month's Art-Journal-Journey Challenge, for May's theme "Zeit / Time". What is time for me? What comes to my mind when I think of time? Time flies, already it is mid May, which means that the spring season's in full bloom. Within a few weeks, the bare trees and brown grass have exploded into the freshest greens, the crops are growing in the fields, gardens are blooming, and the meadows look like green and white carpets. Very soon the summer sun will bleach out all colours, make the pale blue sky flicker, and send people flocking to the lake and river to find relief from the heat and humidity. Slowly, the days will begin to get shorter, the air will get cooler and drier, and the trees around will start to look as if they're on fire, glowing in the brightest reds and oranges, and the leaves rustle under your feet when you walk through the forest in the early morning mist. Soon, it will be cold even in the middle of the day, the air getting chillier and clearer, and beautiful delicate snow crystals start to cover the earth with a soft fluffy cover, turning the world into a perfect winter wonderland. I'm glad I live in a climate where the four seasons are very distinct (although I could do with a bit more snow in winter and less heat in summer). I had an idea about what I wanted to do and made a quick sketch for later, when I would have time to get to work.

I had been working all Saturday afternoon on a watercolour painting (more about it tomorrow), and I wanted to use the same technique for my seasons to reproduce the colours of the seaons.

Summer I found the hardest to do, probably because it is my least favourite season. Even though my idea of a perfect summer holiday does not include lying on a beach, baking in the hot sun and bathing in the sea, I usually spend them in countries where the sea plays an important part - Britain and Sweden.

It's probably not a coincidence that autumn, and especially winter, are the ones I like best. The warm oranges and cool greys and blues just work so well next to each other. I also like spring, though, green being one of my favourite colours after all. But winter is definitely my favourite :)

A palette full of colours of the seasons - spring greens, summer holiday yellows and blues, autumn's oranges and reds, and cool blues and greys of winter.

 

My idea was to create backgrounds and then stick the cut out watercolour seasons on to them. I used the same to colour palettes, and added some text. But when I was finished with them, I realised that it wouldn't really work the way I had imaged.

Even though I had tried to keep the art journal backgrounds as simple as possible, there were too many different things going on in them and the watercolours, that combining them would just be too much. So I'm leaving them as they are, as two different versions of the same theme.

As with the watercolours, it's again autumn, and especially winter, that I like best. I'm going to add some more text, I think, writing down some things about the seasons, and what I like about them.

By the way, have you ever noticed that all four seasons in English consist of six letters? That was definitely a very convenient fact for fitting the words on my art journal pages :).

Linking up to the fabulous Art Journal Journey and the wonderfully 

inspiring Palette & Paint.