What’s with all this orange?

“It’s the Great Pumpkin!”   5” x 7”   Pastel    $50   © Sharon Lewis
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        Why is there so much orange this time of year? I get that pumpkins and other gourds that ripen this time of year are orange, as is some of the fall foliage. But what’s with all of the bright orange-wrapped candy like Reeses (yum!), orange candy corn (last I checked corn was not orange), and orange everywhere you look? Maybe we like orange so much this time of year because as the days get shorter and cooler, we begin to crave more warmth in our lives and orange, a very warm color, helps to satisfy that craving. Whatever the reason, I enjoy the profusion of bright colors like this. Long live orange!

         As if you don’t have enough orange in your life already, here is a bit more. Today’s painting is from a photo I took this weekend at a roadside market up in the North Georgia mountains. They had on display one enormous pumpkin, a sea of normal-sized pumpkins, oddly graceful looking gourds, and tons of fresh fruit. The people there couldn’t have been nicer even though I was much more interested in photographing their produce than I was in buying it. Fortunately, my traveling companion bought enough fruit for them to put up with the annoying photographer lady.