Mourning the trees and painting leaves

 

   I live by a small section of pines, and those woods have been a friend to me for many years. This month, the owners of the land, a 'farm', they call it, came in and cut 90% of the trees. I could see those trees from both my studio and my marimba. I know that they will re-plant and in a few years they might even be as tall as me. But I really wish I hadn't read an article about how trees have heartbeats that move their sap around:( I miss my friends.

   Anyway, now that they are gone, this background is a lot closer to what it really looks like now. Except the real thing isn't so thick. The upside is, it is helping me work the background in this painting. Posting it here helps, too. The last time I did, it helped me see that the front trees needed texture, and so did the middle ground. This is how it has changed since then. The right side is overexposed because guess what? Light is flooding in from my dear, empty woods.

Days of Leaves

     The leaves were coming down like rain this weekend, and to match them, I spent most of my studio time painting them into these two pieces.

    I very nearly painted out the ivy on the tornado painting. I'm kinda glad I didn't. I went through a couple more ideas, but extending the vines seems like the best option so far.

     Also, I haven't been happy with the scarf painting since I said I was done. There was something about the top of her head against that light sky that bothered me. So again, leaves to the rescue.

     I think the main problem with both of these pieces is that I have been ignoring the middle ground, (ha! typical artist!) and the leaves are helping to solve it in both cases. I like them better. So far.