Trail Side Post No. 006: Raven Season
There is something about October that makes me want to lean all the way into the woods. Not the bright green, everything-is-growing woods of spring. I mean the slightly strange version. Fallen leaves. Mushrooms tucked into the forest floor. Ferns beginning to fade. Earlier sunsets. Ravens overhead. That little sliver of moon showing up between bare branches.
So naturally, this month’s Trail Side Post went there.
For Trail Side Post No. 006, I created a raven surrounded by some of my favorite pieces of the season: ferns, oak leaves, berries, mushrooms, stars and a crescent moon. It has a little bit of autumn, a little bit of woodland magic, and just enough spooky without turning into full-blown Halloween.
Basically, October in Wild Ridge Studio form.
This Month’s Art
The main piece started as watercolor, and I wanted it to feel like something you might stumble across in an old nature journal. The raven is the center of everything, but the more I worked on it, the more the smaller pieces became just as important.
The mushrooms. The curling fern. Those ridiculous little red berries. The leaves shifting into rusty oranges and browns. The stars scattered around the moon.
I’ve been spending a lot of time with watercolor lately, including my 100-day project, and I can already see some of that experimenting finding its way into the things I make for Trail Side Post. I’m paying more attention to how the paint moves, where I let it stay loose and where I add those tiny illustrated details I apparently cannot resist.
And yes, the raven took approximately seven thousand layers of dark paint because watercolor likes to remind you who’s actually in charge.
A Little Something Different This Month
The coordinating paper is good for this edition: a November calendar featuring the raven artwork.
I liked the idea of including something that could actually live on your desk, refrigerator, or bulletin board for the next month, rather than disappearing into a drawer. You can jot down appointments, plans, birthdays, hikes or whatever else November decides to throw at you.
There’s also a little hand-burned wooden skull tucked into this edition. Because apparently I looked at a raven, mushrooms, autumn leaves, and a crescent moon and thought, You know what this needs? A tiny skull.
I stand by that decision.
Together, the pieces feel like a tiny collection pulled straight out of the late-autumn woods: part art, part useful paper thing, part slightly weird treasure.
The Part I Keep Loving About Trail Side Post
When I first started Trail Side Post, I knew I wanted it to be more than sending out another art print every month.
I wanted each envelope to feel like receiving a small piece of Wild Ridge Studio in the mail. Something created slowly, connected to the season and filled with the kinds of things I notice when I’m outside.
Over time, it has also become a place where all the different parts of my work can coexist.
Watercolor can sit next to pyrography. Illustration can become something useful. A walk in the woods can turn into a mushroom, fern, or raven that eventually makes its way onto paper. I don’t have to decide that Wild Ridge Studio is only one kind of art.
And I think this month’s edition might be one of the best examples of that yet.
Trail Side Post No. 006
This month’s envelope includes the Raven watercolor art print, November calendar, hand-burned wooden skull, and my handwritten Field Note.
As always, Trail Side Post is made in small batches here in my studio. I print, assemble, burn, write, tuck, and package everything myself before the envelopes head out into the world.
It’s essentially snail mail for people who would rather find mushrooms in the woods than have an inbox full of emails.
Which, frankly, feels like a pretty solid life choice.
Collect the Trail. One Envelope at a Time.
