Twisting Branches

Here is “Twisting Branches.”

I created an oil painting demo video (below) to show my process.

I am using Gamblin oil colors and mediums here on a stretched and primed canvas.

First, I used cold wax medium mixed with titanium white to prep my canvas with a very thick texture. The texture is better seen in person! Then I drew my design onto the canvas in pencil.

The video begins when I start adding my layers of color: first the under painting with Payne’s gray, burnt sienna, adding white to get the various tints I wanted. Then I glazed colors thinly over this: mixtures of cadmium red, cadmium yellow, and cobalt teal.

The painting was allowed to dry completely in between each layer of color. It became progressively detailed at the end as I worked with small brushes. The end result is full of light and very colorful!

The tall tree in the foreground, its trunk lit up in warm tones by the sunshine, is the focus of this painting. The way the tree is bending and reaching looks like a dance.

The curved branches meander gracefully, pulling our eyes across the canvas as they taper into little hands.The way the branches reach and weave here is similar to my previous painting, Arboreal Dendrites.

The branches continue to reach around the deep edges of the painting!

This captures the experience of lifting our faces to the sky and taking in the story of this tree’s journey of growth, always striving for light and claiming its own space among the other trees in the forest.

The dominant colors are bright white, vivid teal, and a warm, earthy orange.