The minute I looked at Eve's latest painting I was blown away by the beautiful colors she had used.

It shouted FALL with the bright reds and yellows. All I could think of was the brisk, fresh fall air and the beauty found in the leaves turning colors.

Fall is definitely my favorite season and I couldn't WAIT to paint this one. Eve created this using acrylic and not our usual watercolors so I knew this would be different, but exciting!

Using acrylic as opposed to watercolor I have to be careful of how I approach the collaboration since I can't blend into her lines and work them together as I would with watercolor. When painting acrylic on paint that has already dried there really is no room for manipulation so I was afraid that I'd end up covering up her work. I loved absolutely everything about the shapes and colors she created and didn't want to have any of it disappear.

So I did my best to create the fall scene that had refused to leave my brain from the minute I saw her paint this. Growing up in a church as a pastor's kid definitely had it's ups and downs, but I will never forget the silence and beauty that is found in an empty church. It is truly magical. My siblings and I would spend hours in the church, during weekdays, just exploring and finding little hidden nooks to read a book or draw.

The memory of seeing the sun peer through the stained glass windows and the dust sparkling against the light has never left me. As a little girl I would pretend those rays of light shining through were staircases that angels and loved ones used to go from heaven to earth. I would sit there in the warm glow waiting patiently in the silence and warmth of the church, hoping to catch a glance of an angel. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.



It is that memory that stirs such emotions in me and I tried to transfer that into this painting. I can just imagine laying on that little white church's floor with Eve beside me as we watch the dust sparkle from the fall sun peering in. The windows are open and we can see smell the fresh fall air and see the red birch leaves falling, gracefully to the ground. It would be a moment in time that I would just freeze and commit to my memory forever...

Just as I did when I was a little girl.