One of my favorite places is to be amongst old growth Redwood trees. They are ancient, gigantic and beautiful. The energy around them to me feels slow, deep, and completely peaceful. These ancient trees were saplings back in the days of a powerful Roman empire. They live for thousands of years, and often will only die when they are toppled over in big storm. They are disease and fire resistant.
I grew up in a neighborhood where the older redwoods were all marked by fire. This can often be the only visible clue that fires are part of the natural cycle of a forest. At a recent trip to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State/National Park in Northern California, I thought of this as I came across this tree. So immense, damaged, and yet healed over.
Painting the bark on this tree was so much fun. I kept layering up the gentle hues of paints. For this work I used the following colors to mix on my palette:
- Phthalo Green (Blue Shade)
- Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)
- Alizarin Crimson Hue
- Cadmium Yellow Medium
- Titanium White
- Dioxazine Purple