Live Oak Trees

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Painting Journal

This is a scene from beautiful Fair Oaks in Evinston Florida. I love the way the branches dip down from the tree forming lovely arches. Sometimes the canopies run along the ground from these low branches. They form natural portals.

This painting is 20x24 inches, oil on canvas.

The palette:

cad lemon yellow

Naples yellow light

ub

thalo blue red shade

cad red light

ivory black

titanium white

I really enjoyed doing this painting.

Tree Workshop,tree studies

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I've been quite busy getting my materials ready for my Tree Workshop in November. The workshop is full but I'm starting a list for a second group for another workshop.  We will be focusing on Pines/Live Oaks/Bald Cypress/Palms for this workshop. They are all indigenous to this part of Florida and I love to paint them. I've been doing a lot of miniature tree studies this month. This is how I teach myself to paint. I do hundreds of these studies on various subjects year round. Here is a sample:

I made myself a template out of index paper. I buy the pads of canvas paper and tear off the binding. I cut the sheets into 8.5x11 and run them through my printer to copy the template onto the sheets. I do the sheet in one piece and then cut the paintings out using the guidelines. You could use oils, but for these I use acrylics. Here is a tip. Use glazing medium with a pale color tint to cover the sheet before you paint. The canvas paper will take the paint much easier when you are ready to paint. I like to use toned canvas. You can use any color your prefer. I usually use cad red light. 

Welcome to my Tree Blog

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.