A Celebration of Autumn in My Collage for LMAC #145

I'm not sure where the inspiration for this collage came from. It certainly began with color. That's what I thought of when I saw Hive account@shaka's template photo:

I imagined burning grass, bright red, parched. It's autumn. The season is very much on my mind. How can I ignore the leaves, the brilliant sky as the sun sets? Autumn may be the end of some things, but it leaves us with such vividness. It sears the senses, as though giving us a last hoorah before the gloom of winter settles in.

I was taking pictures yesterday, and autumn was all around me.

There was the splash of orange and yellow among green leaves that remained.

There was the school bus, coming around the corner, lights on because it was a cloudy fall afternoon.

And there was the inevitable squirrel, precious morsel held in its mouth, ready no doubt for storage against winter scarcity.

And so, the autumnal colors came of themselves in my collage. As I adjusted the color bar I kept moving it until it satisfied my hunger for an autumnal feel. I knew there would be a school bus: School and autumn go together.

I knew I wanted my collage to have a surreal look, so the horse's head is overly large (thank you Hive account@redheadpei for that horse from the LIL Gallery). I wanted a figure to go with my surreal horse (thank you Hive account@muelli for that costumed figure
and Hive account@rappler for the glowing flower head, both from the LIL gallery. I needed a burning sunset to go with the grass. Thank you again, Hive account@muelli for that amazing sky posted in the LIL Gallery.

Anyone on Hive may borrow from the LIL Gallery, and anyone may contribute to the library. Rules and procedures for doing so may be found here.

The school bus was borrowed from LIL, also. This is a picture I had contributed to the library some time ago. After the sky and grass were set, I drew in the ribbon of a road. I wanted the bus to disappear in the horizon, and I wanted the horse to end with a wink, to kind of set a mood.

Round #145 has concluded. Winners have been announced today. Since I don't compete in the contest, my collage is late to the party, which is good, because I was very busy. Busy or not, I need my collage fix just about every week.

I hope you like my winking horse. She has a bit of spirit I hope. She is looking forward, perhaps to continuing on her way along that fiery hillside.

Tomorrow we begin another round of collage creation at LMAC. Check back to see the template photo Hive account@shaka will offer. Join the fun!

Thank you for reading my blog. May we all have a peaceful and healthy fall season. Hive on!

Four pictures are mine: The squirrel, the orange leaves, the school bus with headlights, and the multicolored accent leaf.