Artist Stephen Lyman was well known for his epic landscape paintings featuring mountain ranges, broad rivers and valleys, and often the wildlife that make their home in each terrain. "Steller Autumn" is an intimate portrait of one landscape (a tree) and its inhabitants, Steller's Blue Jays. In order to capture the intricate details of the scene, Stephen concentrated on one area of a maple tree. The jays are seated contentedly among the glowing maple leaves. As the dark boughs spread upward and outward, the golden leaves and a handful of sky-blue birds remain, imbuing the painting with a sense of closeness and comfort.