From the Forest Floor. 48″ x 48″, Oil on Wood, © 2017 Cedar Lee
One of my goals is to create an image detailed enough to achieve realism, but still loose and playful enough to convey artistic creativity within the medium. I want to create not just a beautiful image of the forest, but also an image full of interesting colors, a variety of rough and smooth textures, both vague and sharp distinctions between forms.
This painting shows the experience of craning your neck to look straight up above your head.
The canopy of leaves directly overhead shelters us. These leaves closest to the ground can be seen in detail, their edges outlined in yellow sunshine. Beyond them the foliage higher up in the sky is merely hinted at, fuzzy, out of focus, tree shapes of yellow and turquoise, partially washed out by the brightness of the sun.
The negative spaces where the light shines through look like countless little glinting jewels. In the foreground, the texture of the redwood bark is shown in sharp light and shadow. The highlights are warm pink and the shadows in the crevices are deep magenta and purple.
This is one of my largest-scale paintings. Each one of this size takes about 4 weeks to complete.
