Lit Up | Forest Painting with Leaves in Sunlight

Here is “Lit Up.”

This painting was inspired by this photo I took on a forest hike during a road trip through California last summer. When I walk through a forest, I cannot resist taking photos anytime I see something striking. Most of the photos I take don’t directly end up as paintings, but I save them and they keep the imagery wheels turning in my mind. When I go back to scroll through them, sometimes one of them jumps out at me and tells me that it needs to be a painting!

The impossibly bright sky behind the impossibly tall trees is an image that makes the heart soar.

In the foreground, the deciduous leaves closer to the forest floor pick up the light of the sun. In the painting, I push the bright colors of the sunlit leaves into an almost neon yellow for dramatic impact.

The large leaves in the foreground are a contrast of the tiny branches of the redwoods in the distance, so far above us that we cannot see the details.

The sun bursts around the edge of one of the trees, visually erasing part of the tree trunk as the sunlight takes over.

The small branches in corner are painted in unexpected blue and purple tones.

Rough brush strokes hint at the roughly textured bark of the redwood trees.

This painting is made on a heavy cradled wooden panel. The edges are 2.5″ deep, which makes the painting protrude from the wall dramatically.

It is a light, bright, airy, sunny image.

Feel free to contact me with any questions about purchasing the original, or if you’d like to order a print of this painting.