There is something about a grove of trees that gives me a quiet and introspective feeling. This is often the reason I feel the need to "get outside" - that sense of perspective that comes from finding a quiet, branchy place to re-order my thoughts. Tree shapes in a painting naturally evoke a sense of peaceful connectedness for me. Incidentally, this habit of studying tree shapes has made me a bit of a visual xylologist. Oh, how I do love trees, trees and fancy words!
It's funny how nature can be so disorderly. Trees rarely grow up in a straight vertical line, with the exception of palm trees, perhaps. More often the elements push them in different directions, causing no two trees to grow in exactly the same way. Then there is the leftover branch and foliage matter that collects up in the wild. Wolf Kahn often refers to these as "tangles" in his pastels of forested places. They can form beautiful masses of curvilinear lines that are impossibly complicated.
When faced with a tangle and many complex tree shapes, I like to adjust the pallet so that the shapes stand out more. These two paintings seemed to require muted pallets to properly evoke a sense of quiet. I've tried forest paintings in hues of cadmium red, only to end up with little forest fire paintings. It's the wrong mood. No, a forest needs blues and greens, with only perhaps a hint of peach or violet.
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