Tree Painter

Shepherds of the Forest

2012-02-26T18:31:00.000-08:00

I met the Shepherds of the Forests this week at my Fair Oaks painting residency. There is a new lane I discovered that runs between Fair Oaks and the neighbor's land. Both sides of the lane are lined with ancient trees. They are deep and wise souls and I can feel the hair stand up on the back of my head as I drive slowly between them. They are speaking, if only I could understand their language. What a fantastic experience!!

Studies with My Students

2012-02-18T18:35:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

Today I did one of my favorite learning exercises with my Saturday afternoon painting class. I call them progressive paintings. We start with a limited palette of 5 tube colors. The first painting is done in 15 minutes. We stop and analyze each painting, talking about compositional improvements,value structure and scale. We decide what plan to make in our next painting. Each painting is of the same scene. Then we start the next study. We take 25 minutes for painting two. Then we go through the same routine of discussion, comparing our first and second painting. The next painting is a 45 minute painting. The idea is to improve a bit on each effort, taking a little longer with each study. Because the class is in my loft studio, I had to leave my painting several times to talk with studio visitors so mine are pretty hit or miss due to the interruptions, but I will go back to them and correct and finish them. I'll use them as a series of the tree I studied. This is a sure fire way to improve your painting skills with trees or any subject.

I am excited to be leaving Monday morning for a week of bliss at my favorite artist residency, Fair Oaks. I am privileged to spend a week there this time. I'll be studying lots of trees while I'm there. When I get back I'll check in here with some new tree paintings.

Live Oak Tree Painting

2012-02-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

I started this painting on location at Fair Oaks on Sunday afternoon. It was really cold, in the low to mid 40's all day. We have had practically no cold weather this year so I was unprepared. I was woefully under dressed for the conditions. I managed to get a completed 5x7 study and to start this painting. I worked on it yesterday and today in my painting studio behind the house. I really enjoyed doing it but my light is burned out over the easel so it was a bit of a struggle to see well enough. Today was a better session and I was able to finish it up. I find that I have become used to painting in my other studio, the loft, and like painting there most of the time. it is a cozy space and warmer than my home studio. The light is better too.

I have painted this tree before, but never from this angle. It is a quite interesting specimen with it's curving winding trunk. I can only imagine all it has endured in its long life. It is perched on the edge of a wetland pond, which is now a dry prairie due to the constant drought in our part of the world.

Next week I will be able to paint several trees at my week long residency at Fair Oaks. Always my favorite tree place.

From: http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/live_oak/liveoak.htm

Identifying Characteristics
Size/Form:	Live oak is a large tree that reaches heights of 65' to 85'. It has a wide spreading crown and is buttressed and flared at the base of the trunk.
Leaves:	The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, and may persist on the tree through winter until they gradually fall as new leaves emerge in the spring. The leaves are 2" to 5" long by ½" to 2 ½" wide. The narrowly to broadly elliptical shaped leaves are usually stiff and leathery. The upper surface is shiny, dark green. The leaves are dull grayish green underneath. The leaf base is tapering and the tip is short pointed to rounded. The margin is smooth and slightly wavy.
Fruit:	The acorns are ¾" to 1" long, broadest at the base to almost uniformly wide and rounded to pointed at the tip. Acorns are light brown within the cap that covers ¼ of the dark nut. The largest part of the acorn is dark brown to black and shiny. They occur solitary or in clusters of three to five nuts, and they mature in one season on the current year's branchlets.
Bark:	The dark brown to reddish-brown bark is thick with shallow furrows and roughly ridged, eventually becoming blocky with age.
Habitat:	Inhabiting a wide variety of sites, you can find live oak in almost pure stands, or scattered in mixed woodlands, hammocks, flatwoods, borders of salt marshes, roadsides, city lots, and commonly scattered in pastures. Live oak is found growing in association with several other hardwoods, including the water oak, laurel oak, sweetgum, southern magnolia, and American holly.

The Next Red Cedar

2012-02-03T18:21:00.000-08:00

Residency Project Tree

Notes From my Tree Journal

This is my second painting from my studies of glazing methods. Tomorrow I will work on canvas with this method to see what happens with that. I find this to be interesting, but it's early in my study of the process, so I have not decided whether to include this in my tool box of technique or not.

The pros include:

a more luminous quality to the paint surface

soft edge work

easier to do than opaque acrylic process

Faster than opaque method, as there is less need for tight brush work. Having said that, painters who like tight rendering and detail would have to work much more to get that with this method.

The Cons include:

A less impressive brush quality

Fairly weak edge work where you really need to have a crisp clean edge

Contrast is more difficult in the high key values, in other words weak lights and poorer contrast. For painters who like the middle range of values this method is an asset.

It is much too early for conclusions, so I must do more research and improve my skill with the technique.

A Research Trees Painting

2012-02-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

Today I decided to do some experimenting on a 9x12 inch painting. I started it recently with abasic block in with opaque acrylic application. Today, rather than carrying on in my usual method of opaque layers, I decided to use thin layers mixed with glazing medium for each application. It is a different look and more luminous than the method I usually use. I have seen a lot of acrylic work with multiple thin layers and never much cared for it, but this is a bit different because the initial block in is opaque. It was intriguing and interesting, so I will try again tomorrow with another 9x12 that I blocked in a couple of weeks ago. If that one goes well, I will next try this technique with a stretched large format painting to see how it goes.

Pines at Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve

2012-01-27T19:39:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

This was a wonderful part of the wildlife preserve, right off the paved road. I was there around 9:30 AM when the light was in transition across the field of pines. I really love pine hammocks. I used a birch panel for this painting and it really gives me a different surface than the stretched canvas.The paint has a flatter quality and is harder to soften. It also has a much more atmospheric quality on this surface. The paint stroke is more separated if that makes sense, giving a more deliberate stroke, les blended than painting on canvas. It's fun to experiment with different support surfaces.

Red Cedar at Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve

2012-01-19T19:12:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I got the time to finish this painting today in the studio. These Red Cedars were especially lovely at Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve. Because of the harsh climate, many of them are missing large parts of their canopy, exposing the beautiful trunks and limbs. They have much more character than the cedars that grow in my neighborhood. They have a wild and interesting growth. Lots of them have broken off limbs. I suppose they are whipped around a lot during coastal storms. They look quite old.

I used the following palette for the painting:

cadmium red light

cadmium orange

yellow ochre

lemon yellow

ultramarine blue

thalo blue

titanium white

mars black

The Senator

2012-01-17T06:11:00.000-08:00

I was heartbroken to hear that the Senator has burned and collapsed in Longwood Florida.

I got the information below from Atlas Obscura

Thought to be the eighth oldest tree in the world, the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) affectionately known as the “Senator,” stands in a small park located in Longwood, FL.
Its estimated age of 3,500 years makes it only slightly younger than the carefully guarded Great Basin Bristlecone Pine of California known as Methuselah. To get a good sense of how old this tree really is, one must keep in mind the “Senator” was alive not only during the time of Jesus, but for 1500 years before that when the Greeks destroyed Troy, the Olmecs were powerful in Mexico, Solomon succeeded King David, and Stonehenge was being constructed. Unlike the secret location of the ancient pine, this cypress is very accessible to the public.
The “Senator” is the largest tree east of the Mississippi and currently stands at 118 feet tall with a circumference of 35 feet. A hurricane in 1925 damaged the top of the tree, shortening it from its original height of 165 feet.

The tremendous size of the tree made it useful to both Indians and early settlers as a marker when traveling through the area. Tourists have frequented the area to view the tree since the 1800’s and the land on which it resides was donated to Seminole County by the late Senator M.O. Overstreet to ensure the preservation of the tree. It was in memory of Senator Overstreet that the cypress received its present name. Following the donation in 1927, a ceremony hosted by President Calvin Coolidge, officially opened the property to the public in 1929.
Surrounded today by the Spring Hammock Preserve, the “Senator” shares space with a companion tree known as “Lady Liberty.” This companion Bald Cypress is a comparatively youthful 2,000 years old and stands 89 feet in height with a circumference of 32 feet.

Red Cedar Trees

2012-01-15T07:54:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

My favorite trees at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge were the big ancient Cedars. I got several good shots of them and intend to do some paintings soon. I found the information on Red Cedars on the Internet. HERE

Juniperus silicicola: Southern Redcedar¹

Edward F. Gilman and Dennis G. Watson²

Introduction

This densely-foliated, wide pyramidal, columnar or oval evergreen grows fairly quickly, ultimately reaching heights up to 40 feet with a 25-foot spread. Some individual plants grow wider than tall as they grow older. Some botanists do not make a distinction between Juniperus silicicola and Juniperus virginiana . Its fine-textured, medium green leaves and drooping branchlets help to soften the rather symmetrical, oval juvenile form. Mature specimens of Southern Redcedar take on a flat-topped, almost windswept appearance, making them very picturesque. Bark and trunk on older specimens take on a delightful, `old-tree' look.

Use and Management

The dense growth and attractive foliage make Southern Redcedar a favorite for windbreaks, screens, and wildlife-cover for large-scale landscapes. Its high salt-tolerance makes it ideal for seaside locations. Redcedar can make a nice Christmas tree, and the fragrant wood is popular for repelling insects. Cedar Key, Florida, once had extensive redcedar forests before the lumber was extensively harvested and the wood used for chests and pencils. Although not currently used often as a street tree, its wood is strong, the foliage is clean, and the fruit is small making it a suitable candidate. There are some nice examples of street tree use in southern cities. With proper pruning to remove lower branches, it should adapt well to street-scapes.
Planted in full sun or partial shade, Southern Redcedar will easily grow on a variety of soils, including clay. Growth may be poor in landscapes which are over-irrigated. Plants are difficult to transplant due to a coarse root system, except when quite small. Water until well-established and then forget about the tree. It performs admirably with no care, even on alkaline soil and along the coast. Usually insects and diseases are not a problem if grown in the full sun. There may be local restrictions on planting this tree near apple orchards because it is the alternate host for cedar-apple rust.
Propagation is by seed, which germinate faster if planted as soon as the cones mature or if given a stratification period. Also, tip cuttings can be rooted.
No cultivars are listed but there is ample opportunity to propagate and culture from the wide diversity of shapes and growth habits exhibited by this tree.

Notes From My Adventure to Volusia County

2012-01-12T21:13:00.000-08:00

Notes From My Tree Blog

I just returned from a five day residency in Volusia County. The highlight of the trip for me was the diversity of the landscape and the many beautiful trees I saw in the wild places. This county has exceptional protected lands, both at the Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve, as well as the County parks scattered around. I will be posting paintings soon and showing you some photos of the excellent tree specimens I saw, including Pines, Cedars, huge hammocks of cabbage palms in the marshes, and graceful Canary and Date Palms.

Working on a tough tree painting

2012-01-07T18:57:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

Right now I'm working on a tough little 9x12 painting of trees at the river. It is giving me a world of trouble. Who knows why? Now and then I work on one that I can't seem to do anything with. It's like being a beginner again. I'm having some issues with color temperature and values on it. I left it on the easel at my loft studio. I'll be painting in New Smyrna Beach for a week, leaving on Monday for my first

Artists in Residence Project for 2012. I imagine some time away from the painting will improve my chances to improve it and finally overcome the challenge. Stepping away from a difficult painting can often solve the problem.

I'll have lots to share when I return so don't give up on me.

Trees in My Yard II

2012-01-06T19:19:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

This painting is 9x12 inches on stretched canvas.

I started this painting yesterday and finished it today in the studio from a reference photo I took in the field next to my yard. To me, light and contrast make this painting. I wanted the largest tree, on the right, to be the star with the other two trees as supporting characters. So I gave the right tree the most texture and strongest contrast in light. I also found the weeds and small flowers around the trunks to be very interesting. I made the path more prominent than it really was, to lead the viewer into the painting. I enjoy these small paintings. They give me ideas and technique building to do larger paintings later.

My Winter Yard

2012-01-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

This is a favorite scene for me. It is the field next to my yard. We leave it unmowed because I love the natural Florida look to it. There are huge pines and a few Dogwood and Hickory there, as well as Oak Trees. It is winter when I love it the most. In summer it is just green everywhere, but the Florida winter is just superb with smoky blues, mauves, oranges and ochres. The evergreens tend to look more gray green in winter too. I have learned that I am a winter palette painter at heart and I struggle in summer to make sense of the landscape.

Trees Aren't Always the Star

2012-01-03T17:57:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

Being a tree painter at heart, it is hard for me not to focus on them all the time in my paintings. Sometimes they have to take second stage in the composition. The difficulty is in deciding how much or little detail to put into tree masses in the distance. I often simply leave them as dark masses, or gray masses with little contrast. To me it really depends on how much of a vista there is and how distant they are. This is a poor image of the painting as I am known for poor photography, but the trees in this example are not so strong in the real painting. They are softer and more harmonious with the land mass. As you can see, the center of interest is in the marsh grasses around the water flow.

It's so easy to be caught up in the scene wanting to make everything interesting. It takes thought and composing well to know where to create interest and where to knock the detail back.

Playing Around With my Five Color Palette

2011-12-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

Work in Progress

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I go back to this five color palette each winter. I really love it. It is a great north Florida palette.

Mars Black (Golden)

Ultramarine Blue (Old Holland)

Yellow Ochre (Old Holland)

Cadmium Red Light (Windsor and Newton)

Titanium White (Golden)

In the spring and summer I add Cad Yellow Lemon and Cad Yellow Medium for truer greens.

I am ever amazed at the variety I can get from the 5 palette. It is really great for plein air work. Any time I begin to lose control of my color mixing, I can go back to this palette and get myself straightened out again.

A reader asked about Pin Oaks.
This is what I found on the web. They do not grow in Florida according to this information:

The Pin Oak tree (Quercus palustris) is also known as the Marsh Oak, althoughthe name of Marsh Oak is a bit misleading. The tree is rarely found in marshes and constantly humid conditions. Nevertheless, flooded river valleys often become home to some of these trees.
Coming from Eastern north America, the tree is a relative newcomer to European lands. It was named Marsh Oak by a German botanist from Hameln called Otto II of Münchhausen, who wrote the first valid description of this tree in 1752. The scientific name Palustris comes from the Latin word meaning "marsh", and its is in the family of Fagaceae (Beech trees).
The original natural home of the Pin oak is the east of the United States of America and of Canada, from Tennessee and Virginia to the areas of the Great Lakes in Canada. http://www.piglette.com/trees/oak/pin.html

The Physics of Trees

2011-12-26T19:52:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

This very interesting tree information came from NPR and National Geographic

Hurricanes topple plenty of trees, but when you think about it, the more amazing thing is that many trees can stand up to these 100-mile-per-hour winds.
Now a French scientist has come up with an explanation for the resilience of trees. And astonishingly, the answer was first described by Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago.
Leonardo noticed that when trees branch, smaller branches have a precise, mathematical relationship to the branch from which they sprang. Many people have verified Leonardo's rule, as it's known, but no one had a good explanation for it.
French physicist Christophe Eloy wasn't particularly interested in trees, but he does specialize in understanding how air flows around objects — objects like airplane wings and such. So he decided to see whether he could solve the mystery of the branching trees.
"I just did it because it was a nice problem, but I think there are some implications for real-life applications," Eloy says.
Leonardo's rule is fairly simple, but stating it mathematically is a bit, well, complicated. Eloy did his best:
"When a mother branch branches in two daughter branches, the diameters are such that the surface areas of the two daughter branches, when they sum up, is equal to the area of the mother branch."

When you see something like that that hasn't been explored fully, it's a very nice challenge for a scientist.

- Pedro Reis, professor of engineering, MIT

Translation: The surface areas of the two daughter branches add up to the surface area of the mother branch.

'A Very Nice Challenge'
While Eloy was on a break from his day job as an assistant professor of physics at the University of Provence, he started playing around with some calculations, and he came across something rather amazing. From an engineering point of view, if you wanted to design a tree that was best able to withstand high winds, it would branch according to Leonardo's rule.
Apparently, trees have figured out the sophisticated engineering principles all on their own.
Of course, engineers have known for a long time that they have to think about wind when they're building things.

A conversation about trees

2011-12-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

I had an interesting discussion with my friend Teresa yesterday. She is a school teacher. She was looking around the Loft Studio and thinking about the tree paintings. We got to talking about what trees mean to us and she feels that trees represent stability and reliability to her. She feels strength in knowing that the trees are always there for her and that she can lean on them for comfort and strength. I love it that she shared those feelings with me, as I feel that too. I don't want to give you the idea that I am silly about trees, I'm not, but I do feel they are a very special part of our world and they have much to teach us.

Painting Trees en mass

2011-12-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

Painting a large mass of trees can be difficult and confusing to the beginner. It is easier to do when you develop the pattern of tree shapes as you process through the mass of trees. You will begin to see areas of dark, light. and mid tone values and it also helps if you get a good feel for the changes in color temperature in the tree masses. Here in the south it also helps to use the Spanish Moss and large tree limbs and trunks as markers throughout the painting to give you an idea of where you are. It is easy to be completely overwhelmed by the various shades of green and multiple shapes and values, so it's a good idea to do a couple of value maps of the scene before you begin. Here in Florida you are liable to see this kind of scenery everywhere, dense, jungles of various textures and lots of subtle differences in color temperatures throughout.

One thing to be careful of is not overdeveloping the sky and land mass around the trees unless you want to negate the trees as the area of interest. Since the tree masses were the area of interest for me in this scene, I left the grasses very simple, and muted the cloud formations in the sky.

Oak Trees

2011-12-20T06:47:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

A reader inquired about Bur Oak trees. I was not familiar with them because they don't grow around these parts, so I did a bit of research on them HERE. I have asked my friend Rick Knellinger to write a bit about the trees he has on his land at Fair Oaks. I will post that for you when he has time to write.

My favorite oak is the Live Oak which grows prolifically here in North Central Florida. I can't seem to paint them enough as they are fascinating to me. HERE

A question from a Reader-Notes From MY Tree Journal

2011-12-17T19:12:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

A reader wrote to ask for information on tree roots. I found this excellent web site giving lots of information about TREE ROOTS.

This month I have spent most of my painting time in my loft studio. It is the nheavy shopping season so the gallery downstairs has been open long hours, so I have stayed open too. Today I decided to do this little painting in a cool temperature palette just for the fun of it. I am usually a warm palette painter.

Holy Ground Field Trees

2011-12-15T19:30:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I'm a terrible photographer, so this image is blurry and not excellent.

This is a favorite scene for me at Fair Oaks, where I am an artist in residence. The trees are actually lined up on the rim of a pond which is now dry. I wanted to create some intervals between the trees so the composition would be more interesting, so I made some slight adjustments in the placement of the trees to create space between them. I also varied the temperature in the greens in the tree to create space betwen them. I'll try taking a better photo of the painting and put it up on my web site.

Richardson Farm

2011-12-10T17:59:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

This scene is classic north Florida. Huge Live Oak trees with cattle. You can see this on almost every farm in north central Florida. I really love painting this theme over and over again.It is like eating fried chicken, corn bread and collard greens. Such a pleasure to experience.

This farm is adjacent to Fair Oaks, where I paint as often as I can. There are no cattle at Fair Oaks but across the fence in the neighbor's farm there are many in all colors. Sometimes they break through the border and visit Fair Oaks. I love painting them from a distance but I really like Fair Oaks without the livestock. It is clean, pristine, and the trees are undisturbed. The most beautiful land I know. The light there is like no other.

A great idea

2011-12-06T12:53:00.000-08:00

Sent to me by Lucy Tobias, Florida Author

http://www.solotravelgirl.com/in-spirit-of-giving-artist-places-paintings-in-trees/

Just about done

2011-12-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I'm just about done with this painting. I sure enjoyed the process. I will take a look at it in the morning with fresh eyes to see if it needs any tweaking but I feel satisfied. These big trees are quite a challenge. I will do this one again, probably in a larger format next summer when I have more time.

The Work in Progress

2011-12-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I have made some progress on this 18x24 painting this week. I expect to finish it tomorrow unless the Loft Studio has a lot of visitors. I have two painting studios, one in the city called the Loft where visitors can come anytime. My other painting studio is in a no frills concrete block building behind my home in rural north Florida, about 17 miles from the city.

I really like this tree and this will not be the last painting I do of it. I would like to do a large format painting, about 30x40 or 40x48. That would be a wonderful process. I will learn this tree with this painting and then give it another shot in a large format , perhaps next summer when I have lots of quiet studio time.

I find that I often want to do multiples of a single subject in various sizes and shapes, in order to really understand it.

A Work in Progress

2011-11-30T18:41:00.000-08:00

Notes From my Tree Journal

I don't have an image of the painting yet but I'm working on an 18x24 painting of the above tree reference photo. The tree is growing in the new field at Fair Oaks in Evinston Florida. It is a magnificent Live Oak, simply massive. I'm well into the painting and should be through in a few days. I'll post it when I'm done.

Some of my students have asked me about my tree painting methods and I try to work in an organic way. By that, I mean that I don't do large linear strokes, just filling in the shapes and color. Instead, I vary the direction of my brush strokes, sometimes crossing over the shape in sideways brush direction, changing from warm to cool bark color back and forth, mixing purples, grays, blues, reds, oranges into the various parts of the tree as I go.Giving bark texture in some areas and some areas without so much texture. I like to push some limbs to another plane by cooling them as they recede into blues and grays. Trees are alive and they need that feel to them. They are not static brown and green like so many painters portray them. They are not predictable and drab. The canopy in this particular tree is so heavy and low to the ground that in order to paint it, I had to step under the canopy inside the core to the trunk, as that is the most interesting part. It is like a secret place inside. Because of this, most of the canopy in the painting will be behind the trunk area, and less important than the trunk and limbs. All of these issues have to be considered in a painting. So many decisions have to be made along the way.

Tuscawilla Prairie Trees

2011-11-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

I've been doing a few small paintings of trees at Tuscawilla Prairie. Last week when I was there, I was able to get quite a few reference photos after I did my first painting. This week while people are out shopping, I'm in the loft studio for extended hours and so I'm taking advantage of the extra studio time to study those photos of trees at the prairie.

This is a limited palette of:

Trans Red Iron Oxide

Ultramarine Blue

Ivory Black

Titanium White

Cadmium Yellow Medium

Cadmium Yellow Lemon

Yellow ochre

Cadmium Red Light

Expanded from the palette I have been using a lot lately by adding the cad medium yellow and trans red iron oxide.

Using Color Notes

2011-11-21T19:03:00.000-08:00

Notes From my Tree Journal

In the fall now it is staying light until about 6:15, so the light is fantastic from 4:30 to 6:00 PM.

I love to soak it up looking at the fields on fire with light, the red in the swamp maples and in the tops of the pines. The sky is too hard to believe on some days with dark blue clouds rimmed in impossibly orange light. Let's face it. God is a much better painter than I am.

All the way home down the rural roads I gawk at the landscape in the late afternoon light. So, you think, what good does that do?

When I get home I get out my note pad and my color pencils/markers and I make color notes for future charting. While the memory is fresh, I write down most of the color I saw, the time of day, the places on trees where I was most likely to find the unusual effects of light and the sky shapes, colors and formations. I clip my written notes to my color notes above and store them. Because I have learned the art of observation, after having spent much of my time painting in the field and observing, I am able to close my eyes and remember most of what I saw, hours later. These little color notes are a bit of information that prompts my memory later, when I might need them.

One of these days, I'll be doing a painting and those notes and color charts will come in handy. Not to mention that this kind of research is just plain fun to do.

A Quick Demonstration

2011-11-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

It's my view that a teaching demonstration should focus on a variety of techniques and ideas rather than on doing a refined lovely painting just to look good and impress your students. Painting Demos for patrons is another matter. You want to wow them with your expertise. The above 9x12 was a teaching demo today for a few students. It wound its way through many different brush work techniques, paint mixing advice, and glazing techniques. I did not focus on a sophisticated composition at all. I wanted the composition to be easy to follow, so I did a simplified version of another more complex painting done earlier. I use a five value family when I teach and for my own work. Light-half tint light-mid-half tone dark and dark. I teach using a variety of textures, a variety of color temperatures and values, gradually mixing variations for interest. I use palette knife, brushes, opaque and glazing with mediums. All good fun.

Learning with a study series

2011-11-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My tree Journal

I have found that one of the best ways to improve skills is by working on a series of small paintings with the same theme. Right now, I am studying Cabbage palms as we call them, also known as Sabal palms. I'll do 10 - 20 5x7 paintings one after the other to study different ways, color palettes, backgrounds, etc. to learn painting techniques. I'll study leaf canopy, trunks, texture, sky behind the palms and tree canopies behind the palms to come up with good ways to paint them. This gathered information will come in handy to paint palms into larger format paintings.

I have done these theme paintings in small format for about 30 years.It is non threatening, ok to make mistakes and a great way to learn about painting trees for me.

A study of the Cellon Oak in Alachua County

2011-11-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

Cellon Oak Tree Painting

Notes From My Tree Journal

Yesterday I joined the Hogtown Plein Air Painters for their Sunday paint out. They were going to Cellon Oak Park, which is about 3 miles form my house so it was very convenient. I usually paint alone but it is one of my favorite painting spots in my neighborhood and I always enjoy painting the famous Cellon Oak. It is a massive tree, supposedly the largest live oak in Florida. My little 8x10 inch painting can't begin to do justice to it, but I really enjoyed studying it.

Painting a tree that large in a small format immediately presents problems. It is almost overwhelming. Fitting it into the picture plane is prohibitive. If you fit it into the little format it looks insignificant, If you do it as I did, you have to crop it to give the viewer a notion of just how huge it really is. I did this painting in large format about 8 months ago and it was easier, though still difficult to show it's huge mass.

It's one of those challenging trees that I will continue to paint, hoping to get it right.

Figuring Out Light

2011-11-12T06:02:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I apologise for the wrong rotation of this image. I can't seem to get blogger to insert it in the right direction. Anyhoo, the main focus of my work as a painter is light and atmosphere in the landscape and how to successfully portray them. This 9x12 painting was an experiment in light beams and how they strike trees. I had a pretty good time with this. The location is a favorite field for me at Fair Oaks in Evinston, FL. Field Three, as it is called, is a magical place full of glorious trees. I just happened to be there at the right time to see this lovely sun beam cut across the two trees. A lot of the beam was done with layers of thin paint with glazing medium and then going back over it with opaque paint in some spots. This is my first effort with sunbeams on trees, so I'm sure to improve my technique as I study the light on location further.

Trees with a Painting Knife

2011-11-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

Saturday I taught a knife painting workshop in my Loft Studio. Naturally I used trees as my subject for the above demo painting. I don't often paint with only the knife. To me the best paintings use both brush and knife, but I needed to do it all with my knives to show my class you actually can do a painting from start to finish with them. Unlike most painting knife painters, I don't like thick paint. I usually scrape the paint quite thinly over the surface of the support, in multiple layers. Acrylics are an excellent medium for painting knife because they are clean and crisp; drying very quickly to paint multiple layers. My two favorite paintings knives are the long narrow oval and the slanted chisel edged knife.

Working with Intervals

2011-11-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I think one of the most important elements of composing are Intervals. Creating multiple natural looking spaces between objects is a good idea. It keeps the viewer in the painting longer and they act as visual directive cues. I see a lot of paintings that have the same trunk, limb heights, sizes in trunks,distance between trees,limbs,etc. I think that could be improved. For example, The trees in the above field were actually lined up along the same line. This is common on a lot of farm and ranch lands as they provide natural barriers, fences, and wind breaks. Visually, they are not the best or most interesting composition. By changing a few of the intervals in the tree line, pulling a few branches out into the field, bringing the large single tree down further into the composition, adding a few palms to the single one that was actually there, while gradually making them recessive, and adding some nice atmospheric color to the distance, the composition is more interesting. (Sorry for the run on sentence, art major here.)

A Fun Study

2011-11-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

Tree Paintings

Today's Plein Air Study

5x7 inches

I painted at an event today at a lovely farm that was new to me. I like to do small format paintings in new places because it takes time for me to get a feel for the place. There were lots of distractions as well, with a large crowd of people, fairly loud music and so forth. Not the best time to paint but it was for PR. I enjoyed the scene and the trees in front of me. I'd like to paint there again on a quiet day when I can focus. There were a couple of really grand pine trees, old and gnarled that I would enjoy painting.

Today's Tree Painting

2011-11-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I finally had a day in the studio to begin painting trees again. My week at the coast went fast and now I am back to work on more familiar subjects. This is field II at Fair Oaks. I am really beginning to get some good control with this limited palette for fall and winter. I find that using a limited palette for a season of work really frees my focus, so that I can think about other elements of painting. If you know what your palette will do for you, you can think about composing, values, and other principles and elements of design. Using a limited palette prevents the nasty color mixing surprises that sometimes happen. I really like to have palette control. One thing I learned and tell my students frequently is to mix on the palette, not the canvas. I make sure my mixtures are thorough before I ever add them to the painting. I often see sloppy mixing where lots of ugly variations end up on the painting because the painters have failed to mix properly. Here is another little tip that works well for me. As I begin to do a color mix, I will vary it slightly as I work through the painting. I am adding small bits of other colors into the paint mix. It is not totally noticeable, but instead, subtle variations occur near each other to add depth and richness to the color mixtures. I almost always do this with my paintings. It prevents the flat illustrative look to my paintings that I see so much in other acrylic work. I've never liked that hard edged,flat look and try to avoid it.

Winter Trees

2011-11-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I've always loved painting in the winter here in Florida. We are moving into my favorite painting season now and it is flying by. I am crazy about the color of winter with it's more muted greens, rusts, wheats, and smoky blues and purples. There is a lovely palette late in the day from red and orange to the latest evening light, blue green with long shadows across the fields.

My Winter Palette:

Zinc white

Ivory Black

Cad yellow lemon

Cad Red Light

Yellow Ochre

Ultramarine Blue

My accents include:

Trans Red Iron oxide

Naples yellow

Cad orange

I will often do a painting with the basic six colors and then add a bit of an accent color to the end of the painting to make it pop.

Color Mixing Research

2011-10-31T06:58:00.000-07:00

Canaveral Seashore Paintings

Notes From My Color Mixing Journal

I know this is a tree journal but my travels take me to many locations with different color than my home turf. I thought it might be interesting to talk about that on the tree journal before I get back to my usual tree painting efforts.

I spent two days painting at the beach under the beach pavilion. It was excellent because I was able to paint in the shade while viewing the ocean and sky. The first day I painted ocean waves and that was the real challenge of the paint out. I had been practicing waves in my studio for a few weeks in anticipation. That was fairly easy, working from a photo reference. Doing them live, on site is another matter entirely.The three paintings I did were pretty good as studies. I was really fond of one in particular. It was minimal and really appealed to me. The important discovery was the color mixing improvement I got by working for an entire day on waves. I had been mixing improperly in the studio with too blue a mixture. The ocean that day was much grayer and greener than blue. I have noticed that many artists, me too, automatically mix water too blue. I learned a lot about the mixture that day. I used ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, ivory black, titanium white, and a bit of lemon yellow for the high curl of the waves. Of course in different areas of the beach at different times during the week, the water could be quite blue and even emerald green, but that day it was grayer. Lots of fun and a break from painting the farms, ranches and trees I love so much.

Coastal Trees

2011-10-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From Canaveral National Seashore

I've been over on the coast for a week, painting at the national park. It is a very different landscape from my north central Florida fields with huge live oaks and pines.There aren't as many hardwoods there and there are many more palms on the coast. They rise up out of the dunes in the park just about everywhere. Underneath are lots of sturdy little bushes and palmettos. This time of year, I found lots of the wild daisies growing around and lovely feathery grasses growing among the palms. The oaks are straggly and twisted with odd shaped limbs and more sinewy thin trunks, as if they have been struck by arthritis. It is beautiful there and a refreshing change of scenery for a short time.

Who doesn't love fall trees?

2011-10-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Holy Ground Field

at Fair Oaks

Notes From My Tree Journal

Lots of people go up north to observe the fall trees, but I love the transition in Florida. It is much more subtle here than the riot of color up north. This painting was done with both brush and painting knife. I find that I love the combination of brush and knife. Most of the trunks and limbs were done with the knife and some of the grasses. The rest with brush work. I like the control of the brush and the spontaneity of the knife.

This will be my last post until October 25th. I am going on the road this weekend to Canaveral National Seashore, to paint for a week.

What Trees Can Do in an Urban Environment

2011-10-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

What Can Trees Do For You?

Shade
Trees make our homes and neighborhoods cooler, reducing utility bills in the summer. The appearance of a shaded neighborhood street is appealing. The image of several trees growing together on the same block to create a closed canopy is not only a majestic one, but a much cooler one! The more trees there are in a neighborhood, the cooler it is for everyone who lives there.

A healthy mature tree can add to your property value. Estimates range, but an increase of 10% is not uncommon. Successful landscapes built around trees are beautiful to those who live there, and eye-catching to those looking to buy.

Economically Valuable

Trees are natural filters of all too familiar city sounds. From cars driving by, to excitable neighbors, trees provide a quieter home by deflecting and absorbing sound.

Noise Filters

Trees help to trap pollutants such as carbon monoxide and dust. Through a tree's natural functions, our air is purer and oxygen is given away.

Air Filters

Our water is made cleaner by the presence of trees, especially trees near watersheds or other drainage areas. Tiny roots absorb chemicals picked up in surface water and are stored in the tree.
Along with improving water quality, trees help to stabilize soils by gripping soil particles with their roots. The presence of trees along watersheds that contain soils which are susceptible to erosion can significantly reduce the amount of pollutants in the water.
Many species of wildlife are attracted to trees, including squirrels, birds, and insects. For bird watchers or other wildlife observers, a neighborhood full of trees is a must.
Trees also protect us against wind by diverting it over or around us. Evergreen species planted on the north side of homes can reduce cold North winds during the winter.

Other Environmental

A complete and healthy urban landscape includes the trees of the urban forest. The urban forest is made up of all of the trees within city limits. Our city forest enhances the visual and environmental quality of life, which in turn contributes to economic development. In this way, trees are helping citizens to more fully enjoy community life.

Quality of Life

From www.stillwater.org

Tree Paintings

Spreading Beauty in My World

2011-10-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

I spend a lot of time out in the fields at farms and ranches and I travel a few times each year to painting events. I always was a huge admirer of Lady Bird Johnson who is responsible for many of the wildflowers we see along our roadsides. She made that her legacy to America as first lady and I am grateful to her. As I travel around, I gather wildflowers, pressing the fresh ones to use later and gathering the spent seed heads to share with my friends and patrons. It is a very nice hobby. I use the pressed flowers on wrapped paintings that I ship out to patrons and they seem to enjoy them.

Being a tree painter makes me aware of many wonderful aspects of nature, not just trees. Giving wild flower seeds to friends, and scattering them in the fields seems like a good way to spread the love of our natural world.

Neighborhood Farm

2011-10-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I discovered this farm about two miles from my painting stiudio three years ago. It is a lovely farm with cattle, huge Live Oak and pine trees. Very scenic. I was allowed to paint there very shortly, but with many restrictions. The owner insisted that I give him a painting in trade, and I was only allowed to paint for a few weeks on special days. I had to call ahead for permission. I found that is was not worth the aggravation of following endless rules to paint there. A shame as it is a lovely place very close to me.

This kind of situation is rare, thank goodness. Almost every land owner I know allows me to paint on their farms whenever I like to. Most are generous with their time and resources, asking nothing from me in return. It is so important to respect the land where you paint and not to take anything for granted. I always ask permission in advance and I never leave anything behind except my footprints.

Painting Trees on Location

2011-10-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Painting Journal

A reader commented last night on painting out in the fields rather than in the studio. I've been painting on location for about 25 years now. There are a variety of ways to do it. I have two sized paint boxes and a field easel that is collapsible and light weight for larger paintings. The only time I do large format work on location is when I am going to be in the area for several days. I like to do large paintings in stages. For small format I usually work alla prima, or also called in one setting. My paint boxes, called pochade boxes, are 9x12 and 6x8 and I have a tiny 5x7 box I use now and then. Most of the time, my plein air work is small from 5x7 to 9x12. I do take my camera or smart phone with me to take reference photos. I often use these small paintings as references for larger studio work. I carry a back pack, my hat, and a garden bench with me if I am going to paint for several days. For a single session, I prefer to stand to paint. I like the back pack system much better than the carts that lots of painters use. I like to travel light. if it wont fit in my pack, it doesn't need to go. I use a palette of 6 tubes of paint and three or four brushes, 2 painting knives. I paint with acrylic most of the time now. I paint on private lands most of the time, or in national/state parks. Most of the time I paint alone so it is important to be in safe places. I never take more supplies than I will use in my session. I keep my extra supplies in my box in the car to refill.

Wekiva Trees

2011-10-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

Wekiva State Park is a favorite place for me to paint. I get to go for a week each year and live in the park. There is something special about living in the wilderness. I'm the kind of painter who likes to return to a place over and over again to paint. I have painted there for about 7 years and will be going in March of 2012 again. It took me two or three years to get a feel for the land and the trees there. Now I look forward to the trip, anticipating the kinds of scenes I want to paint. I love the tall stands of pines as well as the tall palms and ancient oak trees along the path to Lake Prevatt.it is the kind of event where I have all day long to paint where I wish to with no real pressure or schedules to worry about. There are a few activities, but most of the time I get to stay in the park and back pack around with my gear. There are a lot of dead trees scattered here and there which I also enjoy painting.

Painting Palms

2011-10-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

Notes From my Tree Journal

A bit about painting palm trees

Almost all Florida landscape painters paint a lot of palm trees. Each of us has our own signature for them. Here is a little about my method.

I like to lay in the trunk height first, adding the basic shape of the canopy at the top. I then will consider that there will be a dark shadow at the top of the trunk area because of the canopy above it. I like to make that shadow area a bit purply right under the canopy. There will be a shadow on the trunk on the side away from the light. There will usually be a fair amount of texture on the trunk as well. Some areas will be broken up light and shadow.

When I start the canopy area, I like to make a dark mass low in the canopy. The lighter tip of the fronds will be in the area of the most sunlight. It will be a warm light green, the darker value will be cool dark greens.

There are often dead fronds hanging down from the bottom where they have not fallen off or have not been trimmed. Those are usually tan or light brown with a bit of gray here and there. They also tend to be a fairly light color except were shadows hit them.

Tree are a Gift

2011-10-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

Trees are a favorite subject for me as a painter and they always have been. Yes, I am a tree hugger. Trees represent stability, strength, permanence, a primal relationship to the land for me. Their roots dig deep into the land that I cherish. I have many happy memories of wandering the forests and woods of North Central Florida, all of my life. My Daddy loved the land too. He always felt there was nothing more important you could own. The land owns us really, not the other way around. It seeps into our souls. I have witnessed this time and again in the farmers, ranchers and landowners I know. A deep respect and nurturing attitude about the land they live on. They are good stewards of the land and of the trees; not careless with this gift.

If you saw the Lord of the Rings films you will remember the wonderful “Shepherd of the Forest”. I love that part of the films when the trees came to life. There is a magic to them. If you spend as much time as I do with trees you will sense their souls and their language.

If I can do nothing else with my work, I hope to leave a legacy and tribute to the glorious trees I paint. Many of these farmers and ranchers are getting older now. I worry that their land will be sold and developed after they are gone. Will their children respect and preserve their lands? I pray so. Some are agreeing to conservation easements and this is a wonderful thing to do.

Conservation Trust For Florida

Alachua Conservation Trust

I support the area land trust organizations because they are so important to keep North Central Florida beautiful.

I urge you to find an organization in your area and to support it. We must find a way to preserve the trees and land in order to have any kind of decent environment for our future generations. Hug a tree today and plant one too.

2011-10-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

This grand group of trees are only about 3 miles from my painting studio. They grow along the edge of a country road. They have great character, including lots of twisty limbs and knots growing on the trunks. The trick to painting masses of trees is to decide who will be the star of the production and gradually lower the drama and detail in the supporting actors. My star is the closest tree in this painting. I gave it lots of light and interesting texture.

Studying A Tree Trunk

2011-10-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

8x10 inches

acrylic on Source Tek panel

Notes From my Tree Journal

This was a great tree to study. It is growing in the woods at Fair Oaks in Evinston. What wonderful character. It has many stories to tell.

With such strong imagery, I found it a challenge to make the background fit without giving it much notice. I would like to do this one again. It was very challenging.

Playing with my Florida Winter Palette

2011-10-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I did this painting today with the same palette as my painting yesterday. I will try to get a better image to share tomorrow. I am really liking this palette. In today's version of pine trees at Fair Oaks, where I am an Artist in Residence, I used a lemon yellow bias in the trees. Yesterday, I used a yellow ochre bias in the tree painting. That is what I love about this palette. You can push the palette more to the earth color or more to the cool greens, depending on how much lemon or ochre you mix into the greens. Using blue and black as your green mixers give you a lot of room to move from gray greens, to cool intense greens. This is a terrific palette. I think I'll be able to use it for most of the winter this year. One of the things I like about the last couple of painting with this is using the cool gray sky rather than the usual blue. I have a thing about using odd colors in my skies. I don't mean the ubiquitous pink clouds that so many Florida painters use, I mean the entire sky. I have painted brown skies, yellow, blue, lavender, gray, pink and orange skies as well as red.

Go big or go home!!

A nice tree palette for Florida

2011-10-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I did this 9x12 painting today and I really enjoyed it. I had no problems with it which leads me to believe it is my plein air work that I'm having trouble adjusting to. This was a studio painting, so thank goodness the studio work seems to be going smoothly.

I particularly like this palette for Florida paintings.

Yellow Ochre (Old Holland)

Ultramarine Blue (Golden)

Cadmium Lemon Yellow (Old Holland)

Titanium White (Winsor & Newton)

Ivory Black (Winsor & Newton)

Cadmium Red Light (Old Holland)

This is the palette I most often use and it has a great range without getting out of control.

There are a few colors that I can add as accents here and there at the end of the painting occasionally but this painting only has the above colors:

Red iron Oxide (Old Holland)

Thalo Blue Red Shade (Old Holland)

Cad Yellow Medium (Grumbacher)

Rose (Winsor & Newton)

The first six colors are really good for winter painting too, using a heavier bias of the ocher and less of the cad lemon.

The Struggle

2011-10-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

My artist's ego took a beating this week from a couple of sources and I've been having some trouble with my plein air work, so it has not been a good painting week. That's OK. It's not the first time and surely won't be the last. The important issue for me is to have faith in myself regardless of outside rejections and influences. It is easy to believe you are failing because of set backs. They must be overcome and pushed aside in the quest for excellence as a painter.

This painting was done on location in my yard. Henry, my French Bulldog joined me by snoozing on the walkway while I worked on the painting. There is a group of trees I enjoy painting. The two white trunked trees get this way each year, losing their leaves very fast and leaving the white trunks with a few colorful leaves left for spots of color. They are striking!!

A Tribute

2011-10-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

A Tribute to the Late Wangari Maathai

From Arbor Day

"When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and the seeds of hope. We also secure the future for our children."
-- Wangari Maathai

These words are inscribed in the lobby of the Arbor Day Foundation headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska. They are the profound words of a profound person to whom our world owes so much.
Sadly, Professor Wangari Maathai passed away on September 25th after a brave battle with cancer. She will always hold a special place in history for all that she accomplished.

In 2004, the Arbor Day Foundation honored Wangari Maathai with the prestigious J. Sterling Morton Award to honor her lifelong commitment to tree planting and environmental stewardship. Indeed, her work transcends generations and will continue to touch millions of people for years to come.

We will forever be inspired.

Dr. Wangari Maathai, Nairobi, Kenya, winner of the J. Sterling Morton Award.

The Morton Award is the Foundation's highest individual honor, given for exemplary work at the national or international level. Dr. Maathai was a member of Kenyan Parliament and served as the Deputy Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife.

While a member of Kenya's National Council of Women, she created a grass-roots program to work with women's groups planting trees. Known as the Green Belt Movement, these efforts resulted in planting over 20 million trees in Kenya, and served as model for representatives throughout the African continent.

A featured speaker at the United Nations Earth Summit, Dr. Maathai, among her many achievements, was recognized by Time magazine as one of 100 people worldwide making a difference for the environment.

In 2004, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her contribution in environmental conservation and human rights.

Cracks in Tree Trunk

2011-10-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

A reader wrote to ask why tree trunks crack. Here is some information on that:

Trunk Cracks and Wood Rot

Marianne C. Ophardt
Washington State University Cooperative Extension
Area Extension Agent

http://www.treesforyou.org/

Have you ever seen cracks in tree trunks? Radial separations of bark and wood are usually referred to as frost cracks. Almost every reference you’ll look at on tree care blame frost cracks on extremes fluctuations of temperature in the winter. In fact, most sources blame frost cracks on the phenomenon of “southwest winter injury.” This type of injury is attributed to the bark and wood of trees warming up on the southwest side on a sunny but cold winter day. The tissue deacclimates, coming out of its complete winter dormancy. When the sun goes down and the temperature drops rapidly, the tissues can’t reacclimate quickly enough and the water in the tissue freezes, causing cell damage. The theory has been that sometimes this tissue damage can result in wood and bark cracks.

For many years bark cracks and trunk splits were attributed only to frost. It wasn’t until the last twenty years, under the guidance of former U.S. Forestry Service scientist and author, Dr. Alex Shigo, that researchers have realized the real cause of split trunks and bark cracks. Apparently “frost” cracks start from a wound that may have happened much earlier in the tree’s life. These wounds are believed to be formed at the death of a root or branch. This wound can create an internal “crack” that develops as a result of stresses from drying, wind, or temperature extremes. When other pressures occur, such as the thawing and freezing that occurs in the “southwest winter injury” scenario, the internal cracks develop outward.

While the frost leads to a visible crack and open wound, it’s not the real cause of “frost cracks.” The real cause of the cracks are the death of major roots at planting time; physical injury to roots from construction or soil compaction; wounds created by flush cut pruning; dead limbs resulting from topping cuts, physical injury to the tree trunk, and poor graft unions.

What is the problem with cracks in the tree wood? Even though callus forms at the edge of the crack and may appear to close it, the wood will never re-knit together. It’s not like broken bones on humans. Once those wood fibers are split, they are split forever. This weakens the mechanical support of the trunk or limbs involved.

Which came first the chicken or the egg? It was thought that trunk cracks developed first and then the decay developed in the center due to the opening created by the cracks. Shigo discovered that the decay is there before the crack, coming from the dead roots, branches, or wounds which instigated the crack. Additional fungi and insects may attack the tree as a result of the outward crack, but decay organisms are already present before the outward crack develops.

What can be done about split trunks? Not much really. One must realize that most of the wood cells of a tree are dead cells. As I mentioned, they will not “knit” or grow back together. In the case of most trunk cracks, the internal wood of the tree is already subject to wood decay from fungi. The tree may function quite well with little effect from the crack or internal decay, since the vital functions are carried out in the outer few inches of the tree's circumference. The real concern is for the tree’s structural integrity. If wood decay becomes substantial, the tree will become a hazard.

Don’t try to paint or seal the split with any type of compound. They don’t help and they can aggravate the wound. The best you can do is clean or smooth the edges of the wound with a sharp knife. Start at one end of the split, smooth around one side of the wound, going no more than one‑half to one inch back from the split bark. Stop at the other end and do the same procedure on the opposite side of the split. This aids in callus development. Sterilize the knife between cuts by dipping for several minutes in a 1:10, bleach:water solution or a 70 percent alcohol solution.

Occasionally “bleeding” or slimy seepage occurs from cracks and wounds. This is called wetwood or slimeflux. It is caused by an infection of the wood by a bacterium. This bacterium feeds on the sugar in the wood and produces a foul-smelling gas and liquid basically through a fermentation process. The infection can kill some of the bark cambium and can stunt growth but, usually doesn’t kill the tree.

Not all “cracks” are serious cracks that form in the wood. Some cracks are simply bark splits and are not likely to be fatal to trees, although they will, in some cases, allow entry of disease organisms which can lead to wood decay. Most of these bark splits are fairly superficial, forming mainly in the outer bark. Splits occur vertically along the trunk or main branches. In many cases, bark splits will often close or callus over completely leaving only a slight ridge in the trunk.

Causes of these splits include various environmental factors, such as rapid growth spurts, drought, fluctuating conditions of excessive and deficient, temperature extremes, southwest winter injury, late fall growth, and sun scald. Trees that are most susceptible to this type of injury are those with thin bark, such as Kwanzan cherry, maple, and certain fruit trees. Young trees also seem more prone to bark‑splitting than older, established trees.

So the next time you see a bark split or a crack in the trunk of a tree be aware that the real cause of the problem is not frost. They are reminders that tree care from the time of planting to pruning all contributes to a tree’s health, now and in the future.

Tree Portraits

2011-09-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

Painting Tree Portraits

Most landscape painters paint trees en mass in a scene. Doing a portrait of a tree means making the tree a star in the landscape. I love to paint portraits of special trees.

How do you give them the attention and respect that they deserve? How do you place them in the composition to show them off to advantage? What do you do with the other elements and trees in the scene?

I like to put them in a sweet spot of a composition. I will make sure that particular tree is featured. I will push back other tree masses and make them less important in detail and color, graying down the color significantly so that my star tree stands out. If it is a close up portrait of a single tree, I will place the tree slightly off center, so that it is slightly uneven in balance. I also like to pull tree trunks off the edge of the picture plane to create depth and drama.

I will intensify the contrast in the star, as well as the intensity of color detail, texture of the bark and so forth, in order to direct the viewer’s eye to my "star" tree.

I will minimize the rest of the scene so as not to compete with my tree of interest.

Tree Trunks

2011-09-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Why Do People Paint Tree Trunks?

A reader asked this question. Here is what my research revealed: From E-How.com

If you have ever noticed a beautiful tree with a painted white trunk and wondered why someone would go through the trouble; there may be a good reason. The white painted bottom is rarely a decorative statement or an attempt to make the tree more aesthetically pleasing. It is, however, a practice that can potentially save the life of the tree. Trees can benefit from a coating of white paint when recent landscaping has entailed the removal of a larger tree that once provided shade for another, or the excessive removal of branches has left a tree barren and its trunk exposed to the sun's rays

Sunscald

The bark of trees is just as susceptible to sun damage as is human skin. Too much hot sun directed onto a tree trunk day after day may not leave behind a sun burn but it will cause damage to the bark that will become noticeable over time. Arborist Mario Vaden explains that sunscald is denoted by bark that cracks and falls off, or simply changes color. Wrapping the tree with a specially designed trunk cover or painting the tree trunk can prevent sun damage.
Bores
A tree borer is an insect that tunnels underneath the bark of a tree and cause severe damage to the underlying layers of the tree. Adult tree boring insects will even lay eggs under the bark; leaving larva to chomp away at the phloem (nutrient-transporting layer) of the tree. According to the University of California, a large infestation of tree borers feeding on a single tree can result in damage that can only be rectified by heavy pruning or removal of the tree. Tree boring insects often seek out trees with the weakest outer protection, so painting trees that are susceptible to sunscald can prevent bark damage and keep tree borers at bay.
Splitting
According to the University of Missouri Extension, white latex paint can also be used to prevent the bark of a tree from splitting and cracking off. This can happen when the tree is exposed to freezing evening temperatures followed by a daytime thawing. The painted white trunk will help reflect sunlight during the daytime hours and keep the tree warmer at night.
Animal Damage
Painting the trunks of trees is also helpful in deterring furry, four-legged vermin. There are some wild animals that feast on tree bark, causing severe damage to the trees that become their daily lunch. According to the University of Vermont, adding a small amount of rabbit repellent to the white paint can prevent hungry rabbits from gnawing on tree bark.
Misconceptions
Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to use white paint to protect a tree trunk. In fact, Ed Laivo from the Dave Wilson Nursery reveals that any light-color paint can be used. What is important, though, is the type of paint used. Latex based paint that is used to paint the interior of your home is sufficient, but if you want to be "green" use paint that has an organic base. Never use an exterior paint because it contains fungicides that can harm the tree.

Painting from My Recent Experience

2011-09-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

A couple of weeks ago I observed the beautiful site of a dark indigo sky with powerful light in the tree tops. Based on that memory I did this painting yesterday. For some reason my camera does a lousy image of these strong transitional color paintings. The actual painting has a richer color. In order to get the field and lower tree color to work in photo shop, it shows the top as bleached out. To see the real thing, stop by my loft and enjoy browsing with a fresh cup of coffee.

Painting from memory becomes easier when you have painted in the field for a long time. You tend to remember and to know how nature works when you spend a lot of time out in it.

Formulas

2011-09-28T06:03:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

One of the problems with rules is that conditions can change very quickly. Nothing is set in stone when it comes to nature. The minute you have a painting formula or rule set in your mind, it is instantly broken. When I first started to study the Notan concept in design, all of my paintings looked obvious and formulaic. I was trying so hard to study the rules that my paintings became predictable. It wasn't until about a year later that I actually began to use Notan as part of my tool box successfully, in a more natural way. I hear and read all kinds of rules for painting from others, like never using black, etc. but I usually ignore these. I've never been a rule follower. Part of observing nature has taught me that nothing you think is set in stone will ever stay that way.

Observation Day

2011-09-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Field Journal

Today I spent the entire day out in natural Florida observing the landscape and trees. I learned some things about the land and trees I didn't know. That is the greatest thing about being a painter. We have so many opportunities to see special places that others don't ever get to see. Florida is not just the land of palm trees and beaches in bright happy colors. There is an ancient dark quality to it that few know. I bounced along in Hutch's truck with Mary Jane through the high Dogweed looking at trees hundreds of years old. This was the land of Mastodons long ago, and explorers still find their teeth occasionally. We saw tall cypress and pines with eagles nests high in the branches, and ancient Live Oaks with long twisted branches reaching low to the ground.We learned from our guide that the Live Oaks are almost always rimming the wet prairie edges and that cypress trees sprout on dry land before they can live in wetlands. I never knew this. Something to add to my tree journal.

After a good BBQ lunch at Pearl Country Store, we headed over to my favorite painting spot, Fair Oaks, which is 160 acres of prime land in north central Florida. We took about a million reference photos before simply sitting and observing gathering storm clouds and the look of the rain on the canopies of trees, which began to sparkle like they had been glittered. There is no place that has light like Fair Oaks. It is the best place for light.

A lot of location painters don't understand that it is the time spent in the field without the paints that really teaches you about painting. That time of sitting and watching is invaluable. My journal is my best resource in painting trees.

A Work on the Easel/Tree Canopies

2011-09-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Back Field Trees

Sold

Notes From my Tree Journal

I'm finally getting some time back in the studio to paint what I want to. I started the composition today on a Live Oak painting. I'm going to try and recreate the lighting conditions I saw the other night, with the very dark sky and brilliant light on the tops of trees. I have toned the canvas with a dark blue black wash to start.

A word about painting tree canopies:

Every painter has a different approach to painting trees. Some painters tend to be literal about stems and leaves and linear in their approach to painting trees. I am more of a mass oriented painter. I tend to see shapes and value masses when I paint. I guess you could say I use a paint by number approach. I like to plug in value and color shapes around the tree, working all around the painting. Gradually, I begin to tighten up some areas with more texture and color, and then push atmospheric areas further back. Atmosphere and light are the main focus in a lot of my work. So as the tree is placed in the picture plane, it will get more or less attention and focus in terms of texture, shape and color intensity.

One of the problems I see for beginning painters is a poor value structure in the tree canopy. Too much information, using texture and leaf shapes to try and construct the canopy, rather than thinking about value masses. This looks cartoonish at times, as if leaf shapes were glued onto the painting. My experience over the last few years has made me aware that massing and using values thoughtfully really pays off. Y'see our eyes don't see the way a camera focuses. We can focus on any given tree, but the others around it will lose definition due to our lack of ability to focus on everything, the way a camera will. We see in planes and I like to think of my painting surface in three basic planes, fore/middle/back grounds. Wherever the trees are placed in those planes will effect how much detail we should put on any particular tree.

People Love Trees

2011-09-26T06:10:00.000-07:00

Fair Oak

Notes From My Tree Journal

Last weekend I set up shop at a festival in a center behind my studio. I took six of my tree paintings with me to show off to visitors. The above painting was the most popular with viewers. I received many comments on this one.

There were many painters at the festival who did Florida paintings. Visitors told me that mine were unique because I didn't do the same marsh and palm tree paintings that the others did. I have done many marsh and palm paintings in my long career, but for the last year or two, I have focused more on rural agricultural Florida. This is the land I grew up with. I was born and raised in north central Florida, with pines and hardwoods. I grew up with farmers and ranchers who hunted and fished to feed their families. The Florida of the past in many ways. This is unfortunate.

A beautiful sight

2011-09-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

Today on my way home from my loft studio I saw a beautiful sight. It had been raining and was quite dark in the sky, that slate blue color of impending storm. The sun came out suddenly and cut the trees in half. The tops were brilliant yellow and the bottoms dark cool green. It was awesome. One of my greatest interests is the afternoon light on trees. I am fascinated by this and have been practicing whenever I can. I can't wait to get through with the commission, the art show this weekend and the paint out, so I can get back to my studies of light on trees.

Painting Spanish Moss

2011-09-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

SOLD

I'm working on a 48x60 commission for a few days. I'll be away from the blog to finish it. I'll be back to this tree blog in a few days. Thanks for being patient. Please don't leave me.

Love,

Linda

Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) closely resembles its namesake (Usnea, or beard lichen). However, Spanish moss is not biologically related to mosses. Instead, it is a flowering plant in the family Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) that grows hanging from tree branches in full sun or partial shade. It ranges from the southeastern United States (Southern VA) to Argentina, growing wherever the climate is warm enough and has a relatively high average humidity.

The plant consists of a slender stem bearing alternate thin, curved or curly, heavily scaled leaves 2-6 cm long and 1 mm broad, that grow vegetatively in chain-like fashion (pendant) to form hanging structures 1-2 m in length, occasionally more. The plant lacks roots and its flowers are tiny and inconspicuous. It propagates both by seed and vegetatively by fragments that blow on the wind and stick to tree limbs, or are carried by birds as nesting material.

Painting Spanish moss is not much different than painting other objects. You must think of it in terms of shape, form, values, color and light source. The light source is all important. The tendency is to put too much detail in moss; making it into a cartoon or illustration. The core structure and values are more important. Once you get the basic shape, color and value in place, you will use a few details judiciously to bring it to life. Don’t overdo it. It is rather like painting feathers and hair. Too much detail will give it a pasted on or fake look. Remember, the more distant the moss, the less hard edge and detail you will have. Save the most detail for the area of interest in the painting.

Painting Tree Bark

2011-09-16T07:09:00.000-07:00

Notes From My Tree Journal

Painting Bark Texture in Trees

For me, the secret to painting bark is to minimize it. Hitting the highlights and darkest values and texturizing is a better look than painstaking reproduction of the bark. There is a fake look to bark that is too carefully rendered.

Light becomes very important in painting tree bark. It tips the edges in places and is not always consistent, often jumping around the tree as shafts and filtered light strike the surface. There is often a halo effect on the dark side of the tree as well with faint light on the edges. Spend some time carefully observing the trunks of various trees on location before you begin to practice painting bark.

Here are some bark colors I use when painting tree limbs and trunks:

Ivory Black

Cadmium Red Light

Cadmium Medium Yellow

Ultramarine Blue

Camium Orange

Yellow Ochre

Titanium White

Richard St Barbe Baker

2011-09-15T05:37:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

A friend of mine sent me this wonderful article to share with you.

Richard St Barbe Baker

by Edward Goldsmith · July 1, 1982 · Leave a Comment · Share · Print

Richard St. Barbe Baker will always be known as ‘the Man of the Trees’. In Kenya, where he was assistant conservator of forests for many years, he was known as Baba Wya Miti, ‘the affectionate Father of the Trees’, also as Bwana Wya Miti, ‘the Master of the Trees’. In Australia, he was often referred to as ‘the King of the Trees’ and sometimes as ‘the Saint of the Trees’; in California, he has been called ‘the Redwood Saint’.
This editorial article was published in The Ecologist Vol. 12 No. 4, July–August 1982.

I like to think of St. Barbe as a prophet, in the Old Testament sense of the term; that is to say, as a wise man, a teacher and an inspirer. Alan Grainger writes of

“St. Barbe’s unique capacity to pass on his enthusiasm to others. . . Many foresters all over the world found their vocations as a result of hearing ‘The Man of the Trees’ speak. I certainly did, but his impact has been much wider than that. Through his global lecture tours, St. Barbe has made millions of people aware of the importance of trees and forests to our planet.”

He has also done so, of course, via Men of the Trees, the association he founded in 1922 and which now has branches throughout the world.

St. Barbe, besides being a wise man, a teacher and an inspirer, was a tireless fighter for the values and ideas that he held to be so important and on whose acceptance by the world at large, he felt sure, must ultimately hinge the fate of our planet and of all those who inhabit it. Those who have looked seriously at the problems that we and future generations must face realise that St. Barbe’s values and ideas are quite as important as he made them out to be.

The Global 2000 report to the last president of the United States, for instance, specifically concludes that, of all the problems we are faced with today, deforestation is probably the most serious, particularly in the developing countries.

St. Barbe realised this decades ago. In 1954, in Land of Tane, he writes:

“When the trees go, the rain goes, the climate deteriorates, the water table sinks, the land erodes and desert conditions soon appear”.

What is more, this cannot go on forever. As St. Barbe always told us,

“If a man loses one-third of his skin he dies; if a tree loses one-third of its bark, it too dies. If the Earth is a ‘sentient being’, would it not be reasonable to expect that if it loses one-third of its trees and vegetable covering, it will also die?”

Government scientists in India, Bangladesh and Nepal have now admitted that the only way to stop the terrible floods that, every year, engulf tens of thousands of villages, drown large numbers of people and their cattle and destroy crops over an ever wider area, is to reafforest the denuded mountains of the Himalayas.

St. Barbe knew decades ago that global reafforestation was essential. He played a key role in persuading the American government during the great depression to set up its Conservation Corps, with its tens of thousands of otherwise unemployed youths going out into the countryside to plant trees and perform other essential tasks. Today, it is a new world-wide conservation corps that is required. In his book Green Glory, Forests of the World, he proposes “that all standing armies everywhere be used for the work of essential reafforestation”. He repeated this proposal in My Life, My Tree:

“If the armies of the world now numbering 22 million, could be redeployed in planting in the desert, in eight years a 100 million people could be rehabilitated and supplied with protein rich food, grown from virgin sand.”

But such action, he realised, could not be successful unless we first obtained the full co-operation of local people everywhere. More so, it is they, rather than governments and international institutions, who should take the lead. In The New Earth Charter, he writes:

“We believe in the innate intelligence of the villagers, the country men and the workers, that they should be allowed to manage their own affairs. We believe they will put into their work not merely their hands and their feet, but their brains and their hearts. Each can experience the transcendental joy of creation, and can earn immortality and bestow immortality.”

It is for this reason that he was so impressed by the Chipko movement in the Himalayas. At the age of 91, he went there and took part in the struggle of the villagers to protect their forests. In a booklet he helped to write for the movement, he recounts how government foresters were sent to persuade the villagers to give up their struggle. The confrontation was recorded in one of the many folk songs of the Chipko movement.

In this particular song the forester asks:

“What does the forest bear?”

and answers:

“Resin, timber and foreign exchange.”

To this the village women reply in chorus:

“What does the forest bear?
Soil, water and pure air

Soil, water and pure air
Are the basis of our life.”

We have here a confrontation between two conflicting world views. The one sees nature as but a source of commodities to be sold on the world market. The other sees nature as St. Barbe’s “vast sentient being” and, as the Chipko villagers put it, “the basis of our life”. The one reflects the ingenuity of science and technology: the other the wisdom that is only embodied (as Eugene Odum, the father of modern ecology, admits) in the culture of traditional peoples – the wisdom that itself reflects, as St. Barbe would have put it, “The Divine Law and the Laws of Nature”, whose violation can only lead to destruction and annihilation.

“Almost everywhere in the world man has been disregarding the Divine Law and the Laws of Nature, to his own undoing. In his pride, he has rampaged over the stage of the earth, forgetting that he is only one of the players put there to play his part in harmony and oneness with all living things.”

St. Barbe realised that to stop the destruction we must abandon our present goals and move our society on to a very different course. As he writes in Land of Tane:

“Man has lost his way in the jungle of chemistry and engineering and will have to retrace his steps, however painful this may be. He will have to discover where he went wrong and make his peace with nature. In so doing, perhaps he may be able to recapture the rhythm of life and the love of the simple things of life, which will be an ever-unfolding joy to him.”

He realised too that if we did not do this soon it would be too late. In The New Earth Charter, he warned:

“This generation may either be the last to exist in any semblance of a civilised world or that it will be the first to have the vision, the bearing and the greatness to say, ‘I will have nothing to do with this destruction of life, I will play no part in this devastation of the land, I am determined to live and work for peaceful construction for I am morally responsible for the world of today and the generations of tomorrow.’”

What is required is nothing short of a spiritual renewal, a new religious world view and one very much closer to that of our forest dwelling ancestors. To begin with, we must learn once again to regard Nature as ‘holy’, as a vast ‘sentient being’ – a phrase that occurs again and again in St. Barbe’s writings. St. Barbe undoubtedly saw nature in this way:

“It is with a spirit of reverence that I approach God’s creation – this beautiful Earth. We may climb mountains or wander through field and forest, intoxicated by loveliness through the changing hours and seasons recorded by the length of shadows cast by the trees – and as we watch the pink, opalescent fingers of the dawn reaching up from beneath the dark horizon, so we wait for the sunrise of our awakening to the realisation of our kinship with the earth and all living things.”

To view Nature as a vast ‘sentient being’ is to see it as alive and imbued with a spirit or a soul, just as did our tribal ancestors for hundreds of thousands of years. Today we tend to dismiss this view as archaic, crude or rudimentary, but why, as Theodore Rozsack wonders,

“Should it be thought crude or rudimentary to find divinity brightly present in the world where others find only dead matter or an inferior order of being?”

Once we cease to see Nature in this way, once we desanctify it, it is in effect condemned. As Rozsack puts it,

“The desacralized (sic) world is doomed to become an obstacle inviting conquest, a mere object. Like the animal or the slave who is understood to have no soul, it becomes a thing of subhuman status to be worked, used up, exploited”.

What was previously our home, our temple, the abode of our gods, and a source of poetic inspiration “becomes but a source of resin, timber and foreign exchange”.

Sadly, we must concede that such an attitude is fully consistent with the ethos of the great monotheistic religions of today.

The abstract deity that we worship is indifferent to the fate of the natural world and offers it no protection against our depredations.

St. Barbe was unquestionably an animist, though we all know of his attachment to the Baha’i faith and to the Christianity of his youth. I actually posed the question to him on one of the three afternoons I spent with him in Auckland just before his departure on his final world tour. “Do you agree”, I asked, “that we, in the ecological movement, must all be animists?” He answered “Yes, that is why I so much admire the work of the people at Findhorn.”

He also recited to me those lines by Stanton Coblentz on the spirits of the redwoods, which those who knew him well must have heard many times:

I think that could the weary world but know
Communion with these spirits breathing peace
Strangely a veil would lift, a light would glow
And the dark tumult of our lives would cease.

If the world is eventually moved by St. Barbe’s inspiration and is converted by his teachings, if it adopts his strategies and eventually becomes imbued too with that animistic world view that he has preached, to what sort of world would this lead? St. Barbe described his utopia very clearly:

“I picture village communities of the future living in valleys protected by sheltering trees on the high ground. They will have fruit and nut orchards and live free from disease and enjoy leisure, liberty and justice for all, living with a sense of their one-ness with the earth and with all living things.”

This is a beautiful vision. Some may think it wildly unrealistic. I do not think so. I think, on the contrary, that it is a far more realistic goal than that towards which present policies are supposed to be taking us. The vision of St. Barbe may or may not be realised – but it could be. The only obstacles to its realisation are man-made ones. They are comparatively trivial.

The vision of Milton Friedmann and Herman Kahn – a vision which is implicit to the Worldview of Science, Technology and Industry – can only conceivably be realised if, as Paul Ehrlich puts it, “We start off by repealing the very laws of Biology and Ecology” – the laws of God as opposed to those of industrial man.

Ben Sira, author of the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, praised great teachers:

“Their fame shall eclipse the immediate triumph of kings and conquerors.”

And their bodily death

“counts for nothing – indeed it should be celebrated since great ideas must live forever.”

Of course it is difficult to agree that the death of St Barbe counts for nothing. He was a unique figure whom we shall never replace. Nevertheless I feel sure that in death, as in life, he will continue to teach and to inspire us. It is up to us, his disciples and his friends, to celebrate the life and work of Richard St. Barbe Baker. It is up to us too, to carry on the fight – as tirelessly as he did in the past; to assure that his vision is realised and that his ideas live forever.

2011-09-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

From the Florida Native Plant Society

Promote Biodiversity.
Of course, growing native plants will preserve and promote the species you grow in your yard. But in addition, growing natives contributes to the ecological balance that developed here in Florida over the millennia. Natives perpetuate the relationships between our native plants and the many other organisms that depend upon them for their survival. Doug Tallamy in Bringing Nature Home elaborates on the relationship between native plants and biodiversity.

Save Time, Money, and Energy.
When used intelligently, native plants require less maintenance, are less expensive, and save energy. Did you know that lawnmowers are a significant source of air pollution? They also use up an appreciable amount of fossil fuel.

Conserve Natural Resources.
Used properly, native plants require little to no extra water or fertilizer compared to most exotics. Watering non-native plants that aren't adapted to Florida's climate wastes energy as well as water, costs you money, and contributes to the pollution of surface water. Fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides used in landscape and lawn maintenance run off into streams and creeks, polluting these water bodies.

No Pesticides Needed.
Native plants have been exposed to Florida's pests as long as they have existed in Florida, and continue to display their resistance to insects and disease in our own yards. Forty years ago Rachel Carson pointed out that pesticides are biocides - their toxic effects are not confined to pests, but spill over to cause health problems for wildlife and people. Now, Our Stolen Future reminds us that we have again underestimated the danger of pesticides.

Watchable wildlife.
Native plants are the best choice for attracting and nourishing our native wildlife. Native plants provide the food and shelter that our birds and butterflies need. Native plants leaf-out, bloom, and fruit when our native species need them most, and provide the nutrients that our native animals have adapted to through millions of years of co-evolution.

My Yard III

2011-09-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I slipped Henry's leash over a short branch of a pine tree. He settled in for a long nap in the tall grass. He is used to these painting sessions and is quite patient and well behaved.

My subject today was the first Dogwood tree who turns orange and red every year. For some reason it always steps up to fall first, even before the Sycamore Tree begins to lose it's huge gorgeous leaves. There are three or four other Dogwoods scattered around the field and the yard, but they prefer to take their time in changing to Autumn.

It was partly cloudy today, so I did not have the sweet light that comes in late afternoon. I struggled along. Painting out in the field is so much more difficult for me than in the studio. I have time to compose well in studio and I don't make careless mistakes. Making a good painting on location is to be celebrated. I will need to touch this one up in the loft studio tomorrow. I ran out of time and light...

Pine and Dogwood Trees

2011-09-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

More Plein Air Fun

I spent two glorious hours today painting this Pine and Dogwood. Henry sat around chewing on the last of the summer grass and lounging in the shade. Painting on location is so much harder than studio work that it takes me some time to become adjusted to it each fall.

My neighborhood has a lot of pine trees and hardwoods. In the late fall, the hickorys turn to rich deep yellow. The Dogwoods and Sycamores are the first to put on their fall coats. I'm watching the Dogwoods turn from green to orange and yellow this week., The one in the field always turns first and then the ones in the yard. It is a feast of color I look forward to each fall. I am determined to take advantage of this lovely color and paint it every week until it is over.

Fall at Last

2011-09-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

Today was my first day out on location for my annual yard series. It kicks off my plein air season. I paint from September - April each year on location. I paint from May-August in my air conditioned studio. I've been painting this yard series for a long time. My dog Henry enjoys it too. He roots around in the weeds and snoozes while I paint.

My yard offers numerous trees to study including hardwoods and pines. Late afternoon offers the best light. I walk down the path through the woods and look at the trees and their limbs. The leaves are starting to come off, offering wonderful trunks for future study.

Sky Holes

2011-09-10T17:55:00.000-07:00

Landscape Paintings

Sky Holes are an important part of painting trees. Tree Canopies need an airy three dimensional look to be realistic. This is the way I paint them.

Many beginners try to put the sky into the painting and then struggle to put trees and objects over it. I like to do the opposite. I like to plug in the objects roughly and then plug in the rough sky through and around them. I never work one part of the painting more than any other. I might go back into the sky two or three times during the painting process, correcting and adding here and there, as the tree masses develop. At the end, I will go in and do sky holes and adjust the existing edges between trees and sky.

Sky holes should not be too many or too few and they should not be too ordered. Random placement, unevenly spaced, more at the top of the tree line and a variety of shapes is best.

Your sky holes will be more realistic if you change the value slightly darker than the rest of the sky. I tend to darken more with small sky holes that are further down into the tree mass and less as the sky holes are near the top of the tree mass. Also, larger sky holes will have slightly lighter value than small ones. This is because more light is going through the trees in larger holes. Keep in mind that the more depth and atmospheric condition, the softer the sky hole will be.

The last thing I do is to take a large flat dry brush and softly touch the brush to the sky holes, one at a time, just straight onto the canvas and lifting straight off. This will soften the edgework just a tiny bit but will not disturb the color and value.

My Tree Notebook

2011-09-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

Solski Trail Trees

18x24 inches

acrylic on canvas

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I use a 3 ring binder for my tree notebook. I like to gather samples of bark, leaves, and small branches to use as reference materials. I put my field notes into the book as well as small studies I do on paper to refer back to for larger studio paintings. Many people don't realize that a lot of research is necessary to be a good tree painter.

Inspired by Trees

2011-09-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

Tree Paintings

Notes From MyTree Journal

So many artists are inspired by trees. Here are lovely words :

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself. ~John Muir

This year I decided to decorate my Loft Studio for fall with leaves. I have a big old Sycamore tree in my yard. I picked lots of leaves and pressed them in a book. When they were dry, I tipped the veins and stems with silver and spattered them with acrylic paint in red,orange and yellow for fall colors. I have scattered them around the studio on table tops and they look wonderful!! Trees do so much for us.

Paths and Portals

2011-09-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

Landscape Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I've always enjoyed portals or windows in the landscape. It's a favorite theme. I always love the mystery of what may be on the other side. Fair Oaks in Evinston has many natural portals scattered through the fields and woods. That is one of many reasons I love painting there so much. Trees often grow together creating natural paths and portals. It's like they are lined up beconing to me to walk through. Trees are living beings. Their roots grow deep, anchoring the land, preventing erosion and harboring many other creatures. They have much to tell us if we stop to listen and spend time with them.

My obsession with Bald Cypress

2011-09-06T06:53:00.000-07:00

Faye's Bald Cypress

Notes From My Tree Journal

Of all the trees I love, the Bald Cypress is the most exotic and wonderful to me. I make a habit of painting them often. This particular tree is a favorite. It grows on the edge of a pond at Fair Oaks in Evinston. It was planted there by Faye who owned the property at one time. It was struck by lightening and so the top is bare. The bottom of the tree flourishes every spring and summer. It is graceful and lovely, like a grande old dame at a ball with her graceful skirts. I paint this tree about twice a year because I love it so much.

Painting Trees

2011-09-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

Companions

Notes From My Tree Journal

Painting Trees

First I look at the basic shapes and their relationship to each other. I look at height and proportion of the canopy to its trunk. Then I look at the proportion for the largest tree to other trees in the scene. Where are the negative spaces within the tree canopy and within the scene? How do they line up with my first measurements of the painting? Where is the light source? What angle?

Next I begin to lay in the dark masses within the trunks and canopy. I consider the warm and cool temperatures within the tree canopy and trunks and where I want the texture to stand out. I consider the various light sources, whether they are reflected light, direct light or ambiant light in making color temperature decisions. I don't rely solely on local color. As a contemporary painter, my goal is not a realistic copy of what I see. The scene is just a jumping off point for me. The painting takes on a life of its own.

I work all over the painting, never over developing any area too quickly. I like to gradually bring it together. I have found that fixating on one area can be a mistake. Every thing I do in the painting effects something else. I try to keep the focus of the painting clear in my mind before I begin. Some areas must be simple and undeveloped and others precise and clear. Variety in color and texture add interest to my painting. I save the end for highlights and what I call color accents. I will often use a color not in the palette to do this little accent at the end.

A great Article about Trees

2011-09-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

Pond Oak

By Hannah Boyd at http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Talking_Trees/

We plant them and cut them down, pick their fruit, rake their leaves and climb them. We harvest them for wood, paper and holiday décor. We bask in their shade, tap their sap to make syrup and their nuts for snacking. We need them to moderate ground temperatures, produce oxygen and reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the air. But how much do we really know about trees?

Actually, quite a bit. Technology has made it possible to pinpoint what goes on underground and behind all that bark. Researchers now know, for example, that the oldest tree in America is “Methuselah,” a 4700 year old Great Basin Bristlecone Pine in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in California. They know the tallest tree is the 379+ foot tall Coast Redwood in Redwood National Park in California. And they know that trees are more important than ever in the battle against global warming.
The trees you see every day can serve as an instant nature lesson for your kids. Take a walk around your neighborhood and pay attention to the different shaped trees you see. Talk about the fact that each one is competing for sun and water. While some stretch tall to reach the sky, the “understory” trees beneath develop rounded crowns to collect the maximum amount of sunlight. If you live in the north where the sun is lower, you’ll see mostly cone-shaped (pine) trees. The cone shape allows the most efficient rationing of minimal sunlight, and needle-shaped leaves help the tree conserve water. These evergreens are conifers. Deciduous trees, like oaks and maples, drop their leaves in the winter to conserve energy.

Good news: talking about tree reproduction is a lot less awkward than dealing with the birds and the bees! Trees reproduce through seeds, but those seeds need to be dispersed to other areas first. There are three ways that can happen. First, the wind can carry them. Second, an animal can carry them either on its fur, in its belly or to a hiding place. Or third, the seed can be carried by water. Take a look at the seeds you find up close. The shape and weight of the seed gives clues to its preferred method of dispersal. For example, a sticky burr is designed to stick to animal fur.

Up for more discovery? Here are some activities to nurture tree appreciation in your little sprout:

Visit www.arborday.org for the online species reference guide. Then do a scavenger hunt in your neighborhood: can your child find a palm, a maple, an oak?

Collect various seed pods and cones and ask your child what their size and shape indicate about how they got where they are.

To catch a glimpse of what goes on inside of a tree, fill a glass with water and a few drops of dark food coloring. Cut a stalk of celery and place it in the water, cut side down. The dye will move up the celery, just as water and nutrients move through a tree’s root system.

Want to spruce up your table? (No pun intended!) Collect fall leaves and place them between two sheets of laminate to make placemats.

Talk about the role trees have played in different cultures and religions throughout history. The “Tree of Life” is mentioned in everything from Chinese mythology to the Jewish Bible and the Book of Mormon. Why?

Plant a seedling! Your lungs will thank you.

Tree Color

2011-09-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

Wood Farm Oak

24x30 inches

acrylic on canvas

Notes From my Tree Journal

One of the things I've done is to study color for Florida trees a lot. I have found that for oak trees, I like a slightly grayer green, more subdued than the clean greens I might mix for pines or other trees. For the canopy I like to mix ultramarine blue with Ivory black and add a touch of yellow ochre for the darkest areas. I then add more ocher and blue to gradually lighten the value. I use mostly ochre and a bit of blue for the lightest value areas, adding a bit of white or Naples if I need to lighten the value further.

For the trunks, I like to use ivory black with cad red light to make a nice dark mahogany as a dark base color. I then add various combinations of oranges, reds, ochres to add the highlights and ultramarine and white for dry brushing the ambiant light on the dark side of the tree trunk. Various grays are added as needed.

The colors in the above tree were mixed this way.

Notes From My Tree Journal

2011-09-03T05:33:00.000-07:00

Oaks and Palms

30x30 inches

acrylic on Birch panel

Notes From MY Tree Journal

For a long time, I put far too much texture in my tree canopies. I finally learned that less is more when it comes to the canopy structure of trees. I learned to look at masses instead of individual leaves,putting more texture in the branches and canopy that comes forward closest to me. This gives more of a 3 D image without overdeveloping them. I look for the light source angle, the cool shadows and warm highlights on the tree, as well as the ambient light which reflects lots of other colors into the canopy. I study light and atmosphere when I paint trees.

The Cellon Oak

2011-09-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

Cellon Oak
24x30 inches
acrylic on canvas
warm silver frame
Available at my Loft Studio

Florida’s largest live oak is just south of the tiny town of LaCrosse in rural north Alachua County. Known as the Cellon Oak, it’s so expansive that the cover of “Big Trees in Florida” shows 30-some-odd people linking hands to approximate the width of the tree’s crown. It’ll help you put yourself in perspective! Web

I took my reference photo from a good distance away from the tree. I wanted to get the entire canopy. It is so large, I could not get a view close to it with the camera. It was dead of winter, my favorite time to paint in Florida. The grasses turn rust, wheat colored and pink in the late afternoon.

Welcome to my Tree Blog

2011-09-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

Bald Cypress

I've been a tree painter for several years now and have studied them all of my life. When I was a kid I roamed the fields and forests, playing under giant Live Oak trees and climbing all kinds of trees. I fell out of more than I climbed. My mother was always in fear for my life. My best friend and I built a tree house in a large oak next to the street. We called it our spy hut. We snooped on the cars going by.

My mission for this blog is to share my tree paintings, the painting information I have gathered and learned over the years about trees and to share lots of stories and information about our wonderful world of trees.

Tree Painter

Shepherds of the Forest

Studies with My Students

Live Oak Tree Painting

The Next Red Cedar

A Research Trees Painting

Pines at Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve

Red Cedar at Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve

The Senator

Red Cedar Trees

Juniperus silicicola: Southern Redcedar1

Introduction

Use and Management

Notes From My Adventure to Volusia County

Working on a tough tree painting

Trees in My Yard II

My Winter Yard

Trees Aren't Always the Star

Playing Around With my Five Color Palette

The Physics of Trees

A conversation about trees

Painting Trees en mass

Oak Trees

A question from a Reader-Notes From MY Tree Journal

Holy Ground Field Trees

Richardson Farm

A great idea

Just about done

The Work in Progress

A Work in Progress

Tuscawilla Prairie Trees

Using Color Notes

A Quick Demonstration

Learning with a study series

A study of the Cellon Oak in Alachua County

Figuring Out Light

Trees with a Painting Knife

Working with Intervals

A Fun Study

Today's Tree Painting

Winter Trees

Color Mixing Research

Coastal Trees

Who doesn't love fall trees?

What Trees Can Do in an Urban Environment

Spreading Beauty in My World

Neighborhood Farm

Painting Trees on Location

Wekiva Trees

Painting Palms

Tree are a Gift

Studying A Tree Trunk

Playing with my Florida Winter Palette

A nice tree palette for Florida

The Struggle

A Tribute

A Tribute to the Late Wangari Maathai

Dr. Wangari Maathai, Nairobi, Kenya, winner of the J. Sterling Morton Award.

Cracks in Tree Trunk

Tree Portraits

Tree Trunks

Bores

Splitting

Animal Damage

Misconceptions

Painting from My Recent Experience

Formulas

Observation Day

A Work on the Easel/Tree Canopies

People Love Trees

A beautiful sight

Painting Spanish Moss

Painting Tree Bark

Richard St Barbe Baker

Richard St Barbe Baker

My Yard III

Pine and Dogwood Trees

Fall at Last

Sky Holes

My Tree Notebook

Juniperus silicicola: Southern Redcedar¹