In September in Wisconsin, the gardening season is winding down. So many plants have finished — growing, blooming, fruiting — but there are others still going strong or showing up with a second wind.

Some years we have an early frost and everything comes to a halt before we enter October. This year, so far, September has been glorious.

Each and every flower is a gift. And I’m grateful there’s still so much color. Color is something I miss most during the winter and I’m delighting in every bit of it right now. Of course the colors of autumn are beautiful and those changes are creeping in, but I’m not giving up on my garden just yet.

Zinnias, dahlias, verbena, nasturtiums, amaranth, catmint, cosmos, marigolds, catmint, canna, salvia, geraniums, feverfew, violas… so many flowers. The Japanese beetles have slowed down enough that I’ve even had a few roses (sadly, they’re not gone entirely).

We’re still eating tomatoes and eggplant and kale and peppers and herbs and I’ve been harvesting dried beans and saving seeds. (Remember, I’m hosting a seed exchange next month. If you want to participate, be sure to save some of your seeds!).

In addition to savoring floral color, there’s still so much green. I have a hard time choosing a favorite color, but green might be mine. It’s certainly one of the colors I use the most in my art and one I miss the most in the winter.

Color is the main inspiration for my art. It’s what catches my eye and gets the ideas flowing.

Studying plants and flowers to figure out how to mix their particular colors is one of my favorite parts of my art process.

There’s something so magical about how paints mix together, especially when working with watercolor. It’s pure joy and could certainly be a practice in itself (look at the work of Lorene Edwards Forkner).

In my in-person classes, it’s always a revelation to my students when I show them how to take just three colors of paint and mix a nearly endless palette of colors. But I’ve also found many students can be hesitant to explore the possibilities fully.

I get it.

When I was first starting out I was impatient to paint something not just experiment with paint. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to relax and play some more in the beginning without worrying about the outcome. Perhaps I had to work my way around to it in my own time (I’ve never liked being told what to do!).

Because of my love of color, I’m so excited to be a part of the Year in Color Online Summit hosted by Larissa Russell of Creative U.

The free sampler runs from September 23-30 where you’ll have access to 19 free classes (you’ll get another 7 more in January). If you upgrade to the full-access summit, you’ll get a year’s worth of inspiration with 52 classes delivered weekly to your inbox. You can learn more and register here. I’d love to have you join us!

Although summer is dwindling and slowly being taken over by autumn (and all its colors and joys), summer is still technically here for a few more days.

I’m savoring it. Painting as much as I can from my garden flowers. Eating what I harvest. And delighting in every color, every flower, every butterfly and hummingbird and toad.

What about you? What’s been coloring your September? What have you been delighting in? What have you been savoring?