Brilliant Autumn

I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts for 12 years. For most of those years I lived a very bohemian life in an old house just one street away from Harvard Divinity School. I worked on art commissions and book covers, sold art at science fiction conventions, and did a lot of sketching. I often drew the houses and trees of my picturesque urban neighborhood. In the autumn the sugar maples in New England are intense and brilliant, even in the city. I would sit outside on the warmer October days and draw my subject, indicating colors with watercolor pencils. Then I would bring it back into the studio and paint in the full color scheme with watercolor. Photoshop didn't exist yet. This picture is one of a series that I did on October 16, 1984. My life was much slower then. I rarely have the time to make elaborate outdoor sketches any more.