Tree portraits

From the time I could walk trees have been an important part of my life.  I've written about this attraction before and it continues.  While sorting my tree photos today a number of them seemed to be calling out for recognition. Some of them have appeared before but one of the ways I get inspiration for my work is to regroup photos in new ways .  It's the pairings that provide new ways of seeing.

Hope you like my world collection of  tree portraits that are longing for titles. Feel free to pitch in with your ideas. 

USA (Boston)

 Newfoundland (Tickle Cove)

 Ireland  1(Birr)

Ireland 2 (Birr)

Ireland 3 (Birr)

 Turkey 1 (Ephesus)

Turkey 2

 Greece (Rhodes)

Spain (Barcelona)

Branching out

Even as a child I was fascinated with tree branches.  Apart from being ready climbing frames, they gave me my first glimpses of various perspectives depending on which angle I was viewing from - looking up, looking down or just being level with the branch.  Even today I can't pass up a close inspection of trees or branches when  they are interpreted by different artists.

Jessica Hiemstra-van der Horst is a Canadian artist and writer  who is currently living in Melbourne, Australia.  I found her work by accident as you often do while searching some other topic on the internet.  I noticed she also showed at Cube Gallery in Ottawa where my work was in a show in the fall of 2009.  A coincidence !  I love the sparseness of her work, her breaking down the dimensionality of  branches into line and shadow.  It is the patterning of branches that appeals to me most as you can see in my Reading a Garden series on the Leyton Gallery website.

source 

Branches on Wall (2008) oil and marker on canvas 108 x 96 cm.

 

Sunlit Branches (2008) acrylic on canvas 40 x 32 in.

Sumac 3 (2008) acrylic, sumac, charcoal and oil pastel on plywood, 24 x 48 in.


Underbrush (2008) acrylic, raspberry & ink on canvas 18 x 60.5 in.

Against the background

Trees fascinate me and it is a life long fascination. I've written about their draw in previous posts and why they interest me. In the last several years I've been photographing them non- stop. In a recent re-sort of my photographs, I found interesting patterns in design and intent that I'm considering for future work. I ended my last series with a tree and the need to explore this image continues. I don't know where it is all headed but writing about it will probably help move my thinking along.

In the following photographs I like the appearance of the branches against the background. The graphic quality of line against blue appeals to my interest in patterning. The look is overall "flat" - one of qualities of pattern and decoration painting. As I look at them, I instantly knock out details and go immediately to the aspect of the composition that interests me. The textural elements are subtle and if I were to use these images for inspiration, my resulting work would downplay that aspect. I'm thinking about the tree as pattern .

The bordering of the trees at the top and side is delicate and exquisite. It is alluring enough to carry a whole composition or at least it would be interesting to try breaking all those rules and leave a gaping hole of blue in the middle.

The division of space by naturally occurring elements is often so perfect that you could never hope to come up with a better composition. In this shot, it is the main branches and their starkness against the sky that pulls me in. my mind instantly deletes the leaves.

My orientation has changed. Looking through now rather than up and seeing the tangle of branches. This reminds me of the garden series where I began with a very integrate design and continued to erode details until I achieved what looked like a very integrate natural pattern that was totally contrived on my part.

Again looking through and seeing a city beyond nature - a very interesting concept. Most cities need to push nature aside as much as possible to make way for life boxes of a different kind.

Change in orientation again, this time looking down and the background is water.

Freedom written by a branch.

Beautiful but not graphic enough. Nature has gone too far with this pattern and there's nothing left for me to interpret.

I'm still not there yet, but there is a glimmer of my next work. I'll keep sorting and resorting my photographs and looking for patterns in more ways than one. I know the answer is in there somewhere.

The spaces in between

Many people are attracted to the skeletal structure of trees. Trunks and branches have a strong presence that demand attention. But for me the real action happens in the spaces between the branches where the intricate play of leaves produce delicate patterns.

Messenger, 2009, mixed media on board

Messenger is a mixed media painting from my Reading a Garden series. The sun shining through the vines that sheltered this statue in the Millennium Garden reminded me of stained glass. My mind wandered to consider what would happen to this scene over time. Voila! a painting is created.

There are many landscape painters who have interesting ways of rendering "the space in between". Two of my favourites are Canadian artists Jennifer Woodburn and Mandy Budan.

Spring Light (2009) 11 x 14, acrylic, Jennifer Woodburn

Jennifer Woodburn grew up in Saskatchewan and now lives in Ontario. She is primarily a self-taught artist, who has relied on occasional workshops and classes for her education. Working usually in acrylics, emphasizing line, shape and colour Jennifer creates simpler forms from what she sees in the landscape.

Jennifer says:
Mine is a graphic take on life. Through the relative chaos, I find the design in nature and organize it on canvas. Using line and simplifying what I see, I look for interesting shapes and colours, and explore the spaces in between. Rhythm is found, and exaggerated. With an upbeat palette and a bit of whimsy for good measure, I capture Southern Ontario landscapes and rural architecture in acrylic paint on canvas.

I am attracted to Jennifer's work for its lively colour combinations and the rhythm she instills through her use of line and colour. This less is more approach helps the viewer to see the strong rhythms and patterns in nature. Her ability to synthesize the landscape makes me realize how much detail I could delete from my work. Jennifer has many more works on her blog and website.

Fall Again (2009) 12 x 12, acrylic on canvas, Jennifer Woodburn

Mandy Budan paints abstracts of the landscape. She emphasizes and rearranges elements in very unexpected ways. Her colours are strong and she relies on repetition of colour and shapes to create intricate patterns. One of the most amazing aspects of her work is that when you look at it up close it appears to be random, colourful shapes but when you see it at a distance it looks very realistic. How do all those little bits and pieces of bits create realism?

Summer Morning (2008) 24 x 30, acrylic on panel, Mandy Budan

Spring Light (2008) 11 x 14, acrylic on panel, Mandy Budan

I find it quite amazing that Mandy can break each painting down into such patterned parts and then create a realistic painting in the end. Her colour usage is so vibrant and often unexpected when you take a close look. While I've chosen two paintings featuring trees, Mandy paints different aspects of the landscape.

Also check out the paintings of Alison Dunhill, a British artist, who uses colour and fluidity of expression to convey the emotional impact of the landscape. There is a balance in focus between the more obvious structure of trees and the spaces in between in her tree paintings.

Are there other "spaces in between" that have been explored through art?

Revealing

I'm head and eyes, or would that be limbs and trunk, into my photographs of trees. Sort and resort, sort by size, colour, texture, function, look for themes, look for opposites, find pairs. Peel back the layers of intuition.

Seek answers....

What attracted me to these images?
Was there underlying symbolism?
Was it an aesthetic attraction?
Does the scene have some emotional connection?

We have all kinds of words that refer to trees growing together in groups:

boscage, brake, chaparral, coppice, copse, covert, dingle, forest, grove, orchard, park, plantation, spinney, stand, thicket, woodland, woods .

It depends on where you live and how large the grouping of trees is. My photos tell me I'm not really interested in bunches of trees. I prefer those that are:

Solitary

alone

cloistered

unfrequented

desolate

remote

deserted

unattended

sequestered

lonely

I'm wondering....

Did I take these photos because ones eyes are automatically attracted to that which stands alone or is different from its surroundings? Or is it an emotional attraction to things that symbolize feelings? Or is it both or neither?

Birth of a series

Sherwood's response to my last post," I think that body of work has already begun, Margaret -- with this post itself! " was very perceptive. I've already begun to tease out how my interest in trees will evolve form my current work for Reading a Garden. When I start a new focus I have several things I consistently do to immerse myself in the exploration at hand. Some of these processes happen concurrently. How I work is definitely influenced by my past years as a teacher who believed strongly in the development of background knowledge to improve understanding. I know some of you will think this is all very obsessive, but it works well for me.

First, I brainstorm a huge bank of words connected to the topic. I never sensor any word that comes to mind. If it is remotely connected to the topic it goes on the list. Leaving my responses wide open encourages depth and breadth in my thinking. I continue to add to my brainstormed list for many weeks/months as I explore other areas related to the topic.

When I move into the second stage of preparation - wide reading on the topic- I can procrastinate forever. I never feel my understanding is deep enough. Right now I'm looking at the symbolism of trees/forests in art, history and literature. This is usually the stage where I convince myself I need to buy new reference material to expand my understanding. My self control over buying new books is improving. I now try the local library, second handbook stores, friends' collections and on-line used book stores. Every now and then I have a good reference before I start. We'll see how long I stay in this learning stage.

For anyone who has read my blog from the beginning, you know I use my photographs as a way to broaden my understanding of a topic I am interested in. Right now I'm culling all my photographs that reference trees in any way. Once these are placed together, I begin the process of sorting and resorting all the while keeping notes in my Trees journal. This is one of my favourite ways to find my way in my work. I don't know about you but I take photos intuitively. If it speaks to me I never question why. I just shoot and wait for it to become important. The sorting and resorting helps me see the themes I am interested in. I also follow several photography blogs. Looking at other artists' photographs provides me with fresh ideas. I look for ones I am attracted to and then record why. This is not about technique or composition, It's about what content draws me and why.

Concurrently, I begin to look at how other painters, sculptors, instillation artists have explored this topic in their work. I don't do this to copy other artists' work, rather I want to get a sense of where what I am interested in fits with what is being created by contemporary artists.

My focus on trees has really begun in my Reading a Garden series but I expect it to expand beyond this series. I've already created several works that I will re-post here. Several others are in various states of completion. I guess I've already begun to say quite a bit about the trees I came across during my two week stay on the Demesne.

Screen(2009) 24 x 10 in. mixed media on board

Hidden(2009) 24 x 10 in. mixed media on board

Entangled (2009) 24 x 10 in. mixed media on board

I began and ended with a photo of trees from Birr Castle Demense . What do they tell you?