TM9182 Ode to an Autumn Afternoon 42×48 oil on panel

One of my earliest memories is from the day I started wearing eyeglasses. I was in the back seat of my parent’s car, looking up through the window and seeing TREES WITH LEAVES. It was a staggering sight – I only knew trees as blurs. Maybe that’s why I’m still so fascinated by the sight and experience of trees. Their movements mesmerize me – all that overlapping color and shape, and the contrast of blurry with sharp detail (STEMS! WHAT A NOVEL IDEA!). Every time I start painting the view up, into, or through trees I feel like a little kid again, experiencing the joy of sight for the first time. Thank you, trees, for the wonder and the breeze. Details below. Enjoy.

TM9182 Ode to an Autumn Afternoon – detail from right side

TM9182 Ode to an Autumn Afternoon – detail from upper left

Technical painting notes: After painting many oil on paper studies, my arboreal series is beginning to take shape. Ode to an Autumn Afternoon is certainly about warmth and the movement of air through trees. It also uses a range of techniques to explore ways of seeing leaves – as blurred and moving shapes and as outlines scraped into wet paint or applied with a brush. The close harmonies of tone and color are soothing. Using semi-transparent color applied thinly with a roller contributes to the nuanced color. Liquin Impasto medium was mixed into the paint to provide transparency and speed drying.Sometimes,  Sometimes I used the edge of the roller to draw lines, sometimes a narrow roller, and of course occasionally a narrow flat brush.