The Clearing

This painting is called “The Clearing.” It’s inspired by my hike around the Big Trees Trail in Sequoia National Park, which is a 1.2-mile loop that meanders around a gigantic open meadow. This easy hike was a unique experience during my visit to the Giant Forest, because it was the only place I visited where you could look across an open space from a distance and see an entire giant sequoia tree from the ground up.

The trails through the dense parts of the forest, in contrast, restrict your views as the giant trees surround you completely. You can only see the ones close to you, and only bits of the looming treetops of the ones further away. Think of it as seeing the Manhattan skyline from across the water as opposed to walking down the street in Manhattan.

I’m really pleased with the feeling of depth and the clarity in this painting. My recent experiments with very thick texture are paying off–the results are so juicy and expressive, and I get fun things happening like the texture in this sky:

My favorite part of this scene might be these feathery branches reaching in from the side of the foreground, lit up brightly in the sunlight to really bring out the deep jewel tones of the shadowy background forest.