Here is “Emerald Day.”
Artist with art: Emerald Day. 36” x 36”, Acrylic on Canvas, © 2022 Cedar Lee
While walking my dog, I recently took some photos looking up into the tree canopy in a stand of Douglas firs in a beautiful dog park near my home.
I go to this park regularly, and look at these woods almost every day, but only occasionally do I take photos.
The visual composition of one of my photos made me really want to paint it, because of the negative shapes of the bright sky between the treetops, and the darker shapes of the trees all reaching upwards together into the sky.
But unlike a more realistic depiction of this view, I had a mental image of these almost peacock-like colors, a vibrant emerald green and a deep teal blue.
I felt strongly compelled to paint these trees in this unconventional color scheme, so I did!
I first toned the whole canvas with a bright peacock blue, so that this color would pop through from under subsequent layers of color.
The treetops are soft and hazy, the color becoming more important than the detail of the branches and leaves.
The white light from the sky comes through the foliage in some parts of the painting as small chicken-scratch brush strokes.
You can enjoy this painting as a depiction of the forest, but you can also appreciate the intentional use of vibrant color and the interesting playful effects created with paint and varied mark-making.
It is a piece of art that gives you many things to look at and different ways of seeing it the more you look.
Contact me if you’re interested in purchasing the original or a print of this image.
