B.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Behind the scenes
Christchurch is at its most lovely in Autumn, and - despite the rubble, demolition equipment and ubiquitous, appropriately-toned road cones - this year is no exception.
![Charles Herbert Eastlake Lingering Leaves 1901. Oil on canvas. Presented by the Canterbury Society of Arts, 1932](/media/cache/27/af/27afd55286116413f9dd44251cda19a9.jpg)
Charles Herbert Eastlake Lingering Leaves 1901. Oil on canvas. Presented by the Canterbury Society of Arts, 1932
This time of year always makes me think of this understated, beautifully composed painting by British artist Charles Eastlake (1868-1940). For me, it captures perfectly that moment when the imminent approach of Winter seems to intensify the radiance of the autumn leaves. You'd be hard-pressed to find such traditional haystacks gracing the hill-line here, but in a paddock near my home, hay has been cut and tautly bound in a series of giant, gleaming white cubes that look more like an environmental art project than an agricultural one.
And speaking of fruitfulness... take a long lunch-break, or take the long way home, but don't miss (Christchurch born and trained) Saskia Leek's show of luminous still-life paintings at Jonathan Smart's England Street gallery, which closes on Saturday. Delicate, gleaming and playful in all the right ways, they're a shot in the arm against earthquake fatigue, and a life-affirming innoculation against the grey days to come.