HOW TO PAINT A TREE
HOW HUGGING TREES INSPIRED ME TO PAINT THEM AND TELL THEIR STORIES.
Hugging trees isn’t exactly how it started, I was just a kid, running wild and barefoot in the forest behind my childhood home. The For-rest was my fort, my get away, my escape. I grew up in a family with 6 kids, and I was the black sheep. The forest was my friend, it was where I could be myself, and no one told me what to do. There was a stream, running through an area not far from my backyard and it was here that I would spend most of my time. There were a few tall trees with giant vines hanging from them along the creek. I would hold on to these vines, yanking on them and I would shake the tops of the trees, or I would jump as high as I could to get a grasp of the vine so that I could run with it flying over the creek, seeing how far it would carry me before I let go and landed on the soft forest floor.
DID YOU KNOW?
By the best estimates there are around Three Trillion Trees on Earth Reality. They cover close to 30% of the Earth's surface. Remember my: PLANTS DOMINATE THE WORLD post? Well, it's quite amazing then to realize that Trees, which are plants, outnumber humans 400 to 1. Scientist's have discovered and catalogued 60,000 different species of trees.
As a little kid the FOR-REST, was my oasis, my garden, my hide away, my protector, my teacher, and the place I always went to when I was angry, feeling hurt, or in trouble at home. But mostly I went there because I felt peaceful and there was so much to explore.
I Sometimes would pack a little bag of food when I thought I was running away, to my forest. I made the mistake the first time of packing a can of tuna, but forgetting the can opener. That was one of those trips that didn't last too long.
The trees surrounded me like sentinels. I felt safe among them. Laying in the bed of leaves below I would watch them bend gracefully in the winds, listening to their tiny finger like branches in the canopy click and clack together, the sound would comfort me and I actually fell asleep many times in the woods.
When I grew up, no matter where I traveled, where I lived, it would always be near the For-rest. And when I couldn’t get out to the woods, I would honor my friendship and connection with them through my art, and my paintings.
Trees fill me with wonder and spark my creativity I have found inspiration in the branches and leaves of trees around me.
And it’s little wonder.
Trees are good for my soul. They’re essential to the air we breathe. And they provide a majestic example of strength and perseverance in the face of adversity. Below is some of my art honoring and representing my enjoyment of the trees.
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.”
― Herman Hesse
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”
— Kahlil Gibran
“Ancient trees are precious. There is little else on Earth that plays host to such a rich community of life within a single living organism.”
— Sir David Attenborough
“There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.”
― Minnie Aumonier
“That each day I may walk unceasingly on the banks of my water, that my soul may repose on the branches of the trees which I planted, that I may refresh myself under the shadow of the cherry blossoms”
“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.”
― Chris Mase
“Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.”
― Albert Schweitzer
Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.
When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts
“Trees, for example, carry the memory of rainfall. In their rings we read ancient weather—storms, sunlight, and temperatures, the growing seasons of centuries. A forest shares a history, which each tree remembers even after it has been felled.”
― Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
“Do you know that even when you look at a tree and say, `That is an oak tree', or `that is a banyan tree', the naming of the tree, which is botanical knowledge, has so conditioned your mind that the word comes between you and actually seeing the tree? To come in contact with the tree you have to put your hand on it and the word will not help you to touch it.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known
Thank you for visiting, and checking out my art and photography of the THE TREES
OH MYYYYY!!
You are my new favourite artist. WOW!!
I'm blown away!!!
you are extremely talented! I loved treehouses growing up, climbing and hiding in avocado trees, spying on everyone 😻