As Within So Without 10 (Birds Over Leaf)

A monumental leaf unfurls across the picture plane like a weathered flag, its ember-orange veins and mossy greens holding the last heat of a season in transition. The composition tilts between intimacy and vastness: a close, tactile surface rendered with luminous pigment set against a cool, stony ground that feels both shoreline and memory, punctuated by distant birds that read as fleeting thoughts. Light becomes narrative here—warming the leaf into near-sacred presence while the surrounding blues and charcoals quietly insist on impermanence. The work meditates on endurance and surrender, suggesting that decay is not an ending but a vivid, necessary passage.