This oil painting, Forest Love, is a commissioned piece I’ve just finished. The client wanted a painting from my “Looking Up” series, but all of the paintings in that series are sold–I’ve never even kept one for my own home.
After painting this I know for certain I will continue to revisit this theme in my future work, especially after seeing redwood forests in person for the first time this year. My mind is full of forest images. In the meantime, if you are also interested in owning a commissioned piece similar to this one, drop me a line.
In the sky, a heart shape is created by the negative space between the trees. I’ve done that once before in my painting Love is in the Trees, but in this painting the heart is more subtle, more like the organic shapes you’re likely to see in real life.
Every time I paint one of these it brings me the feeling of being there in the forest–I can always feel a sense of the oxygen rich, earth-scented air, the feeling of dappled sunlight on my skin, the sounds of birds and forest critters, and being surrounded by a mossy, wet, shady landscape.
I love how these gigantic trees zoom so dramatically into the sky, and because they’re so ancient, they’re both literally rooted in the ground, but also rooted in time–without realizing it, I’ve created many common thematic threads throughout my work over the years. No matter the subject, a lot of my paintings over the years have explored the relationship between sky and earth, and exploration of dramatic light is present throughout.
People who have followed my work for a long time and are familiar with my earlier tree series sometimes tell me the trees are their favorite thing of everything I’ve done. I admit I love painting them.