Painting on Live Edge Slabs | Art Commission Design Process | Acrylic on Wood Painting Techniques | Appalachian Fall

Here is “Appalachian Fall!”

It is a 3-panel vertical painting spanning three live edge slabs taken from the trunk of a huge maple tree!

The width of the curved silhouette of this piece ranges from around 2′ to 2.5′, and the total height is around 9′.

This was a commissioned piece custom-made for a client who needed a very tall, vertical piece of art to hang in a 13-foot tall stairwell.

I created this piece in the center of my studio floor. Shown here, you can see the slabs are resting on two 10′-long 2x4s. It is so large that I could only get a photo of the whole thing head-on by leaning over it with a camera from the top of a 6-foot ladder!

My client and I carefully chose the wood I would use for this piece, selecting this particular tree trunk for its uniquely curved silhouette!

The viewer will get to enjoy all three panels seen from different angles as they walk down the stairs toward the art, and as they pass by it closely, the details will catch their eye.

My client graciously shared these images with me of the art installed in its new home!

To join me on the eventful journey of creating this art, watch this video where I explain every step of my process:

Here are some of the beautiful details:

The painting has an autumn leaves theme. Colorful leaves float on the swirling breeze in the sky, drifting down from the top panel all the way down to the bottom.

I strategically left the most beautiful parts of the wood grain exposed along the edges of the piece, where they flow like a river up and down the entire height of the piece.

This provides continuity between the three panels, and respects the beauty of the natural materials by incorporating the features of the wood into the design.

This tree trunk is maple burl wood. A burl is a knobby protrusion growing on the trunk of a tree. When that trunk is cut into cross-sections like this, the result is many gorgeous details of knots and wood grain within the burls, and a unique bumpy, curvy silhouette to the panels.

When my client asked for a fall theme, I decided to incorporate some of my favorite parts of some of my previous fall-themed paintings! I love the shape of this large maple leaf from my previous painting created in 2007, Winter Foretold:

So, a very similar leaf became the focal point of the bottom slab:

The high-gloss finish makes the wood gleam beside the brilliant colors of the paint.

Sadly, I did not have a wall tall enough to hang this piece vertically for a photo before shipping it off to its new home.

When you see my human scale beside this artwork, even laid out across the floor as it is, you can get an idea of the impressive scale! For comparison, I am 5′ 6″.