Powerful Redwoods - Paperblog

Here is “Powerful Redwoods,” one of five small redwood forest paintings I’ll be shipping out from my studio in California as soon as they’re fully dry. They’re on their way to RiverView Gallery in Havre de Grace, MD, where you’ll be able to see them in person a couple weeks from now, if you’re in that area.

“Whoa! I almost fell out of my chair with vertigo when I saw that!” was a friend’s reaction to this painting. The trees look like powerful individual entities–you can see the solid strength in the trees.

This painting skirts the line between representational and abstract. I go from looking at the composition of lines, shape, and color, to seeing it as trees, and back again. Someone in my artist’s critique group said the huge tree trunk at the bottom looks too much like a flat plank, and I should make it slightly rounder-looking by adding strategic highlights and shadows.

After I thought about it, I decided to keep it as-is. I sort of like the idea of the viewer’s eyes being drawn up that plank into the heavens. And as much as I’ve used artistic license here, it does capture some of the reality of standing under a giant redwood and looking up the trunk: it’s such a staggering visual experience that it does look more “abstract” than representational, even in real life.

Powerful Redwoods. 16″ x 16″, Oil on Wood, © Cedar Lee 2014

Here are a couple photos I posted recently on my Facebook page. Here’s what my studio looks like at the moment. These paintings lined up on my drying rack and propped everywhere are making the studio feel like a real forest!

Redwood forest paintings on the drying rack in art studio of Cedar Lee

I couldn’t resist actually lying down on the studio floor to get the full experience. I feel like I’m inside this world I’ve created, especially with some of the larger-scale pieces. Fun!