August: A Month of Transition

The calendar has shifted to August, the eighth month on the Gregorian calendar that was introduced to us by Pope Gregory XIII and came into general use in 1582. The word august, which derives from the Latin, can mean majestic dignity or grandeur. If you were born in August and have any interest in astrological signs you probably know that you are either a Leo, a lion full of energy (July 23 to August 22) or a Virgil (August 23 to September 22), who are described as logical, practical, and systematic in their approach to life, an earth sign.

- Elizabeth Howard

In New York August is a month of transition. My mind drifts to drawing. If you have had the experience of sketching from a live model you know there are long poses and short poses. During the long pose, usually twenty to thirty minutes, there is time to study the figure and contemplate the composition. Later as you begin to draw you can work on the shadows and add in highlights. When the session ends the model pulls on a robe, takes time to stretch and returns, perhaps for another long pose, assuming a completely different position. The light has shifted and the way you compose the drawing is different. August is a long pose, at the end of the summer.

The Japanese call the transition from day to evening higure, which is neither darkness or light, nor even a mixture of the two. It’s the space between fiction and reality. A few days ago, I sat on the veranda of a restored farmhouse nestled on the top of a hill in New Hampshire and watched the sky. The clouds were in constant motion and changed from white to pastel colors as the sun began to set. The trees, at the edge of the rolling hills so tall they almost touched the sky, were swaying. The birds were quiet, and the sound of the wind was whistling through the trees, as the sky became black, and the night descended.