I Forgot How Autumn Feels (22 Photos)

By Vidar

Autumn looks a little different here

A dragon breathes fallen leaves across a sidewalk, a chalk fox gets her den ready for winter, and one last swimmer refuses to call it a season. These 22 artworks range from leaf patterns and tiny pavement scenes to mosaics and murals full of autumn color. Some make you want to get outside; others make a good case for a warm coat.


Yellow and orange leaves form an hourglass pattern up a mossy tree trunk and across the ground, with Jon Foreman and Layla Parkin beside it.

⌛ Horarium — By Jon Foreman with Layla Parkin in Little Milford Woods, Wales, UK 🇬🇧

Yellow leaves climb a mossy trunk and widen into a pool on the ground, giving the arrangement an hourglass shape. Foreman identifies Horarium as a 2024 collaboration with Layla Parkin at Little Milford Woods in Pembrokeshire.

More: Jon Foreman Uses Nature Like This

🔗 Follow Jon Foreman on Instagram and Layla Parkin on Instagram


A green chalk character holds a rake beside a pile of real red, orange and brown autumn leaves on a sidewalk.

🧹 Raking the Leaves — By David Zinn

The rake and its owner are drawn on the pavement; the leaves are real. Zinn places the little worker beside the pile so the autumn cleanup becomes a scene in miniature.

More: More autumn chalk art by David Zinn

🔗 Visit David Zinn’s website


A green chalk dragon appears to breathe a fan of real brown autumn leaves while a small mouse stands beside it.

🐉 In Which Nadine Amuses a Dragon and Makes Autumn Happen — By David Zinn

A dragon breathes a trail of fallen leaves across the sidewalk while Nadine looks on. Zinn draws the characters right at the edge of the leaf pile.

💡 Nerd Fact: Before his sidewalk creatures made him known, David Zinn spent more than twenty years freelancing for commercial clients in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan, on work such as theatrical posters and logos, according to the artist’s biography. His street drawings are always improvised on location.

More: More autumn chalk art by David Zinn

🔗 Visit David Zinn’s website


A curved field of carefully spaced leaves changes from green through yellow to orange between exposed tree roots.

🌈 Fluentem Colos — By Jon Foreman in Little Milford, Wales, UK 🇬🇧

Foreman arranges the leaves in a color gradient that bends between the roots. Bare earth shows through the gaps, making the whole patch look as if it has lifted into a wave.

More: More forest sculptures by Jon Foreman

🔗 Follow Jon Foreman on Instagram


Curving bands of red, orange, yellow and green leaves frame a dark opening-shaped pattern on the side of a tree trunk.

🍃 Colos Curva — By Jon Foreman in Little Milford Woods, Wales, UK 🇬🇧

Bands of red, orange, yellow and green leaves curve around a dark center on the trunk. Foreman points out that he did not carve into the tree: he built up the shape with clay and used dark earth for the hollow, so it looks deeper than it is, and the rain washes it all away. He made it in autumn 2024, the first time he had red leaves to work with, which let him push the color change further.

More: More forest sculptures by Jon Foreman

🔗 Follow Jon Foreman on Instagram


David Zinn’s green chalk character leaps toward a real pile of red, orange and brown autumn leaves.

🍂 Into the Leaf Pile — By David Zinn

Arms raised and feet off the ground, Sluggo heads straight for the leaf pile. The chalk figure supplies the jump; the real leaves supply somewhere to land.

More: More autumn chalk art by David Zinn

🔗 Visit David Zinn’s website


Concentric rings of yellow leaves form a circular pattern over an intricate arrangement of small brown twigs on the forest floor.

🍁 Golden Leaf Circles — By James Brunt

Golden leaves form concentric rings above a dense pattern of twigs. The dark gaps keep each ring distinct.

More: More land art by James Brunt

🔗 Visit James Brunt’s website


Bruno Althamer’s portrait mural of Kora in Warsaw, with the brown and yellow leaves of a real tree forming her autumn hair.

🍂 Kora’s Autumn Hair — By Bruno Althamer in Warsaw, Poland 🇵🇱

A real horse chestnut tree supplies the changing hair in this portrait of Polish singer Kora. Designed by Bruno Althamer and painted by the Redsheels team, the mural at Nowy Świat 18/20 in central Warsaw combines a few painted branches with the limbs of the tree, which give her hair its autumn colors.

💡 History Fact: Kora was born Olga Ostrowska in 1951 and was the lead singer of the Polish band Maanam from 1976 to 2008. She died in July 2018.

More: Kora’s portrait through the seasons

🔗 Visit Bruno Althamer on Facebook


A golden chalk fish and a small mouse holding a paddle appear among real orange and yellow maple leaves on pavement, by David Zinn.

🐟 A Fish Among the Leaves — By David Zinn

A wide-eyed golden fish swims through a scattering of maple leaves while a tiny mouse steers alongside it. Zinn turns the pavement into a pond, with real autumn leaves floating across the scene.

More: More autumn chalk art by David Zinn

🔗 Visit David Zinn’s website


A hedgehog assembled from white fluff, grass seed heads and thin red spikes sits among real brown and yellow autumn leaves, by Hannah Bullen-Ryner.

🦔 Little Autumn Hedgehog — By Hannah Bullen-Ryner

A tiny hedgehog peers out from a pile of fallen leaves. White fluff, grass seed heads and thin red spikes make up its prickly coat, while a glossy dark eye and nose bring the little face into focus.

More: More animals made from nature by Hannah Bullen-Ryner

🔗 Visit Hannah Bullen-Ryner’s website


Rows of yellow leaves, green foliage and branches follow exposed roots in broad rings around a large tree, with participants standing behind it.

🌳 Leaf Rings Around a Tree — By James Brunt and Collaborators

Rows of yellow leaves follow the roots instead of hiding them. Brunt made this arrangement with seven young Syrian collaborators, building the pattern outward around the tree.

💡 Artist Fact: Born just outside Sheffield, Brunt studied fine art at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London and now works from the Teesside coast in North Yorkshire, according to his biography, which also describes community projects that use art to build wellbeing and confidence.

More: More land art by James Brunt

🔗 Visit James Brunt’s website


David Zinn’s chalk character Perry rides a red scooter on cracked pavement bordered by fallen autumn leaves.

🛴 Perry’s Autumn Ride — By David Zinn

Perry rides a red scooter along a patch of pavement bordered by fallen leaves. The tiny wheels, little paws and helmet turn an ordinary crack in the sidewalk into the start of an autumn outing.

More: More autumn chalk art by David Zinn

🔗 Visit David Zinn’s website


Yellow and green leaves on curved sticks form a fan around a dark center against a tree trunk in Jon Foreman’s Leaveshroom Void at Little Milford Woods.

🍃 Leaveshroom Void — By Jon Foreman in Little Milford Woods, Wales, UK 🇬🇧

Yellow and green leaves balance on sticks around a dark center. The curved branches spread the leaves away from the trunk, making them look like a little grove of mushrooms growing out of the tree.

More: Jon Foreman Uses Nature Like This

🔗 Follow Jon Foreman on Instagram


A chalk mouse holds a paddle on a leaf-shaped raft among real red, orange and yellow fallen leaves, by David Zinn.

🍁 A Leaf-Sized Voyage — By David Zinn

A chalk mouse sets off on a leaf-shaped raft, surrounded by real red, orange and yellow leaves. Its paddle makes the pavement feel like a tiny waterway.

More: More autumn chalk art by David Zinn

🔗 Visit David Zinn’s website


Green and yellow leaves arranged in curved rows around mossy tree roots on the forest floor by James Brunt.

🍃 Leaves Around the Roots — By James Brunt

Green and yellow leaves spread out in curved rows around mossy roots. Brunt leaves small gaps between them, making every leaf easy to pick out against the brown forest floor.

More: More land art by James Brunt

🔗 Visit James Brunt’s website


A miniature street sweeper in blue overalls and a safety vest holds a broom beside a small bin cart, surrounded by much larger brown and yellow fallen leaves, by Slinkachu.

🍂 Autumn Cleanup — By Slinkachu

One tiny street sweeper faces a very large cleanup. His broom and bin cart are miniature models; the fallen leaves are full size, towering over him like a wall.

More: More tiny street scenes by Slinkachu

🔗 Visit Slinkachu’s website


Maggie, a chalk fox by David Zinn, looks up from an open pavement hatch surrounded by real brown autumn leaves.

🦊 Maggie Gets Ready for Winter — By David Zinn in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA 🇺🇸

Maggie peers out of a hatch drawn on the sidewalk. In Zinn’s original caption, she is giving the fallen leaves a chance to furnish her den before she closes up for winter.

💡 Chalk Fact: Zinn improvises these temporary drawings on location using chalk, charcoal, and objects he finds there.

More: Beautiful Autumn By David Zinn! (9 Photos)

🔗 Follow David Zinn on Instagram


Red leaves arranged in a rising pattern on a large tree trunk by Jon Foreman and Layla Parkin, with both artists seated at its base in Colby Woods.

🍁 “Ascending Red” — By Jon Foreman and Layla Parkin at Colby Woods, Wales, UK 🇬🇧

Red leaves climb the trunk while the woodland floor is covered in gold and brown. Jon Foreman and Layla Parkin sit at the base, small beside the tree they have worked on.

💡 Land Art Fact: Foreman explains that the leaves are held in place with mud and clay.

More: Jon Foreman Uses Nature Like This (10 Photos)

🔗 Follow Jon Foreman and Layla Parkin on Instagram


SMUG’s mural in Kotka shows a bearded man in a fur hat holding a walking stick, with a rat on a branch beside him and red-orange leaves covering the painted forest floor.

🧣 A Walk in the Woods — By SMUG in Kotka, Finland 🇫🇮

A man in a fur hat grips a walking stick, with a rat perched on a branch beside him. Painted for UPEA17 in Kotka, the scene has the red leaves and heavy layers of a cold autumn walk.

More: 24 Times SMUG Made Walls Look More Real Than Life

🔗 Follow SMUG on Instagram


Ememem’s curved mosaic of blue, green, yellow, and white tiles fills a broken patch of sidewalk beside a curb lined with orange autumn leaves.

🧩 A Little Repair — By Ememem

Blue, green, and yellow tiles fill a broken patch of sidewalk, with orange leaves gathered along the curb. A small repair that makes looking down a little more rewarding.

More: Be The Change (17 Photos)

🔗 Follow Ememem on Instagram


AÉRO’s mural In the Autumn of Life shows an older woman and a bearded older man against an orange autumn forest on a residential building in Leeuwarden.

🧡 “In the Autumn of Life” — By AÉRO in Leeuwarden, Netherlands 🇳🇱

Two older faces fill a wall with the warm colors of an autumn forest. Created for Writer’s Block, AÉRO’s mural honors the residents of the care home and older people more broadly.

More: In the autumn of life (by AÉRO in Netherlands)

🔗 Follow AÉRO on Instagram


David Zinn’s chalk drawing of a green creature taking a swim in a tiny tiled pool on the pavement, with Nadine the mouse sitting on the edge and fallen leaves all around.

🏊 “Nadine and the Last Autumnal Swimmer” — By David Zinn in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA 🇺🇸

A tiny tiled pool opens in the pavement, surrounded by fallen leaves. Nadine keeps the last swimmer company; someone is clearly not ready to call it a season.

More: Beautiful Autumn By David Zinn! (9 Photos)

🔗 Follow David Zinn on Instagram

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