Portfolio of Works

This is a series of portraits of trees. A portrait has traditionally been a way to honor someone, to preserve their image over time, a gesture of respect.

Art instruction traditionally teaches that the difference between landscape painting and portrait painting is that you don't paint the individual branches, leaves, etc. in a landscape but rather capture overall rhythms. The color and atmosphere becomes the important thing in landscape, as opposed to the emphasis on precise and accurate drawing which is needed to create a "likeness" in portrait or figurative work.

I did the contrary with these tree portraits. The branches really are their individual branches; I adhered faithfully to the distinct shape and positioning.  You can identify each featured tree in a group of trees from these portraits. The paintings preserve a likeness of a tree as a way to treasure each uniquely worn and noble specimen. 

Our generation has a duty to sustain the environment for future generations. We are failing mightily. These trees have watched over humankind with their shade, cleaning the air, providing shelter for wildlife for generations. They are threatened now.

I have been touched by the rhythms of the branches, the reaching from one to the other, the dance of their limbs. I hope to feature, through art, the value of these and all trees as objects of beauty, as fellow living creations not just for the services they provide but for who they are, perhaps worthy of greater protection.

At worst, these portrait grab something that is fast disappearing, latch onto their image and all they stand for. Maybe these are portraits of what we are losing. This series is in honor of them.