THE FOREST THRU THE TREES

     The Forest thru the Trees | Pastel | 6x6

Aspen are my current passion!  On our recent trip thru Colorado, we hit a stretch of 30 miles deep inside a forest of them. Each trunk has such an individual personality, I was tempted while painting these to give them each a name. Ah! But I know a grove of Aspen are all from the same root, making them the largest living organism on our planet. Studying them, some seemed to have eyes looking back at me. Many seemed to have scars and wounds and there were a lot of stretch marks. In my imagination, I could make up a story about these sisters just by looking at their trunks!

Painting Notes: I drew this one in carefully, putting the dark markings on the bark first. Then the background color choices - the darkest colors in each shape - went it. First I worked the upper background, then I went straight into the individual trees, saving the grasses and trunks for last as they needed to weave into each other. I relied heavily on my Rembrants for the grasses and got to use the new Terry Ludwig set of Yellows extensively.