This painting is my latest addition to my Tree of Life collection, and the first one I’ve done that includes a human figure!
This image is very meaningful to me. This year I’ve gone through too many big transitions and struggles to count. During this time of constant stress and change, at times I have felt very lonely, while simultaneously craving true solitude, if even just a moment by myself to catch my breath and reflect–something that perhaps other parents of little ones can relate to, even if you haven’t just moved house twice in 7 months!
So as I was painting this image, it was partly to capture the sadness of feeling like you are alone in your struggles. Even when we know, logically, that loneliness is almost always an illusion created in our own minds, it can still be so overpowering.
Moonlit Solitude. 16″ x 12″, Oil on Canvas, © 2015 Cedar Lee
But then as I was painting, it became more of a fantasy, as I thought how nice it would be to be this little person under that gorgeous tree, with the roots spread out in a giant underground fan beneath her, giving her strength, warmth, and a feeling of safety, of being anchored in place along with the tree.
Looking out at that bright moon in that wide open sky, with the faraway forest tilting below her from her high vantage point as she sits in contemplation, I think this person is experiencing the regenerative kind of solitude.
What do you think she’s thinking about? What do you think she is feeling? What is pictured here: Grief? Hope? Peace? Exaltation?
I wanted to leave it open to the viewer’s interpretation, so I just titled it, “Moonlit Solitude.”