“O, it sets my heart a clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock, When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.”

The title is from his poem "When the Frost is on the Punkin", James Whitcomb Riley (1853–1916), that set the autumn mood and inspired the children to make all manner of artworks using oil pastels, markers, soft pastels and mixed media, all now on view in our Hallway Gallery.

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;

But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Madison's Still Life

Oil pastels