Nov 1
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

November is dedicated to coming to grips with the color brown. I know that many things that I love are the color brown, but I keep thinking of them as some other color. Foxes and this horse are not brown, they are red. Leaves turn colors, like red and orange and yellow unless they simply aren’t trying. Tree bark is gray. Labrador retrievers are supposed to be black, even though the creamy ones are beautiful.

Chocolate is brown but I think I’m going to put that off for a week because I just ate so many too many M&Ms that I can’t face the chocolate concept. Coffee is brown, and tea is frequently brown unless we are exploring the newer special issues. Brownies are (almost by definition) brown. Most horses are some form of brown, as are their eyes, a gorgeous purply brown that defies description. Horse chestnuts, regular eating chestnuts, figs and many pears are all brown. See, I am slowly talking myself into parts of brown.

My biggest issue at the moment is entirely mental. I can’t think of a color complement to brown. The color across from it in the color wheel that makes it pop and sing. Blue has orange. Pink and red have green and vice versa. Purple has yellow. Black and white complement each other. Brown is in the middle of the color wheel, brooding. It is what happens when you mix colors you didn’t quite mean to, when you rinse your brush when using water colors. Blicky, slightly slimy, mud colored brown. This is what I have to get past.

Oct 31
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.