My Winter Yard

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.

My obsession with Bald Cypress

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.

Tree Color

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.