Nature's Colors

I have been staying with my mother for a while as she recovers from an illness.  I use the guest room on the west side of the house. Through the window I can see the ash tree in the front yard and a lot of sky.  I love looking out a window from bed.  The windows in the bedrooms of my house are not placed for easy viewing.  But whenever we camped in the trailer or the old truck topper, I always had the curtain or shade open so I could see outside if I woke during the night or could look out when I first woke in the morning.  There might have been things to see that I didn't want to miss;  mist, clouds, stars, lightning, grouse and rabbits in the meadow at first light, patterns of frost on the window pane, the colors of dawn.

During August, I watched Mom's Ash tree sway and twist in the dark night of a late summer storm.

During September, I watched the tree silhouetted in moonlight and viewed clouds and stars through its branches.

During October I watched the leaves fall, one by one or in flurries and waves.

On a morning in November I woke early, because of the time change, and saw the morning sun transform the trunk and leafless limbs from a grey-brown to an intense orange. A color no one would believe. A color created by the sun at that moment, that angle, through that atmosphere, by my eyes from my position in that bed.

We expect nature to be beautiful, colorful and normal.  We do not expect green sky or orange trees.  But nature does provide unexpected color and with such intensity, if an artist rendered an image replicating these unexpected colors, his audience  might not believe they were real. It seems an impossible task to translate this real, true  experience of intense unexpected color in a way that will be accepted and understood by the viewer.  Is the question- expression of emotion with unexpected color or using the unexpected color to create emotion? Where does believability come into the equation of experience between the artist and the viewer?

I want to be bold and to create with unexpected color that can be believable. Is an artist's unbelievable color dismissed because the viewer has never had that magic moment of orange bark? Or-- does the artist give a gift to the viewer allowing him to share the artist's awe?  I am rambling.  I had a wonderful morning in November.