Old Tree New Life

sketch.jpg

Sometimes what appears in my art journal turns into a full blown piece of art like this gnarled old tree… now on a 16 x 40 inch canvas!

Old Tree New Life watermark

The process to get from one to the other involved many steps.  The background was made with my own Citra Solv technique and a hand cut stencil.  The tree trunk was painted on lightly so the background would show through.

trunk

For the leaves, I painted a batch of papers using stencils and lots of green paint.  I also used a decorative napkin, wallpaper, and book pages. Then I cut leaves out of the papers.  Lots of leaves.

Once the leaves were glued in place, I added detail work and shading.

It took a lot of space on the table for this long canvas!

long canvas

I finished up the piece with the coming of the new year.  It seemed so fitting to have this old weathered tree growing a new crop of leaves just as we welcomed in a new year.  Seems like a message of hope and promise and new things to come!

This piece will be headed soon to Tessera Fine Art Gallery in Wichita.

0 Responses

  1. Laura (PA Pict)

    What a wonderful piece to kick off the new year. I think the idea of new growth on an old tree is the perfect way to end one year and begin another.

  2. WildFire Studio

    Absolutely stunning! I think this is one of my favorite pieces of yours to date. And so appropriate for the new year… I’d love to see this one in person! I’ll try to make a trip to Tessera the next time I’m in Wichita. 🙂

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