Forest Light

Step into the woods on a sunny day,

even the smallest patch of trees,

and you have stepped into a light show.

The faintest breeze

shifts the shadows and changes the colors.

Don't just look at the trees...

Look at their trunks,

Their leaves,

Their branches ...

Really see them,

How the leaves seem to float in the sunlight,

and filter the light

and how the sun shines on some trees

and silhouettes others.

On another day,

the same patch of forest

can be entirely different.

Look closely at the trunks,

how they have pinks and grays and purples.

And how the sun

now accents different trees,

and changes the colors of the forest.

Each day,

and different hours in the same day,

give different light shows.

Find a small patch of trees

and take the time to visit it

to really be in it

for only a few minutes

But take that image with you so you can return and notice the changes.

Check barbaramcevoyartist.com for other woodland paintings.

Reaching for Light

People love to live on streets and to walk on paths with lovely arching trees, but it wasn't until I started painting those lovely arching and leaning trees that I realized at least part of the reason they have those arches and bends and leans.

Sitting in the middle of the stream bed to paint the above pastel, I wondered about the straight tree on the left, thicker than the leaning tree and evidently older. I looked closely at the anchoring of the leaning tree and where it's slimmer trunk took it...the anchoring was strong, into the bank, around rocks, and long, stretching almost beyond the roots of the larger, upright tree. And see where the trunk takes it...over the stream into the free sun space.

What survivors trees must be.

How often it is the lean or the twists or the bends that give the tree its character...as with yesterday's Dancing Matriarch. And the metaphor holds for people...it is the hard times that often shape us and make us grow!

So today, when I stepped outside, I headed for a particular path with a slanting tree that would provide a good companion piece to this pastel. But sitting, blocking in the basic shapes of the trees on the path, I looked to my left and saw the granddaddy of twisting trees... not the trunk, but the branches. He will be a companion piece to the dancing matriarch.

Stepping outside and seeing the wonders is very easy. Not so easy is "a painting a day! "

I leave you with both a sketch and a photo of the great granddaddy of twisting and reaching branches. Both the granddaddy and the shaded path, will be subjects of a later blog.

Meanwhile, step outside and see what factor the sun space above a tree plays in its twists and turns and leanings.

And don't forget to check out barbaramcevoyartist.com.

Trees Grow in the Darnedest Places

Trees do grow in the darnedest places.

That lonely tree

on the edge of a cliff,

when there are no other trees around.

Why that one,

in that place?

What is the persistence

that helps them

take root in an cave,

surviving on reflected sunlight

until they have built roots

to support the particular lean

that is necessary for the crown to get to sunlight?

How do they build roots in the barren gravel,

in the crevices of the rocks, on the barely jutting ledges?

on the wind blown tops of canyons,

when there doesn't seem to be water for miles?

While others choose the canyon floor and build small forests

on what seems to be only seasonal water?

Although we usually go to canyons to see the canyons,

and admire their color,

we need to pay attention to the plant life,

which adds the contrasts to the red walls

and brings its own particular forms of beauty...

When the Navaho's said, "We walk in beauty," they meant every breathing living part of their environment...

they knew how to be outside, how to appreciate all the beauty.

Check out barbaramcevoyartist.com for more canyon paintings.

Dancing Trees

I love this dancing matriarch.

I found her in a city park in Allentown, limbs swaying in every direction to catch the sun. The younger ones had the occasional curve, but there wasn't a tree in the park that matched her grace.

And her portliness only served to accent the sway.

Parks are good tree watching places because they do provide open areas that often allow trees to spread their limbs.

When you step outside, you can find dancing trees every where.

See if you can find a few...

Check out my website, barbaramcevoyartist.com for other woodland sketches and paintings.

Meet a Tree

Ever notice how every tree has a different shape, a different personality. Like people, some hang together in groups, some lean, some stand straight, some have crooks in their trunks.

Like people they take on different personalities as they respond to their own circumstances through the years. And what better place to observe the absolute variety then in the silhouettes against the evening sky?

And like people, there are always those who prefer

being "On the Edge."

Step outside and choose a few trees to look at for their differences.

Like people on the street, you don't have to know their names to appreciate their differences.

Check out my website, barbaramcevoyartist.com

for other paintings of the Maine Woods.