It was an exquisite morning in early fall when I set out along a narrow walking path in New castle County Delaware. The area had flooded several times that season, so I was glad to be able to return to one of my favorite places after the water had receded and the mud had begun to dry.

When I set up my easel I was struck by the radiating vertical trunks of the trees that clutch the edge of the Brandywine River. As the sun rose higher, the rest of my muse was revealed. The strengthening sun lit the yellow leaves of the middle-ground sycamore tree, directing my eye back toward the path’s unknown destination.