Tree Series: Madrone in Spring

This painting is 4 feet high and 3 feet wide and vibrates with color. It is almost completed, except for final layers of green and details. Each green shape has at least 4 layers of acrylic paint on it, which have to dry before the next layer. Green is the most fiddly color to work with, in my opinion, but looks great once I commit to smoothing it out. I see lots of birds and frogs in the leaves and undergrowth. The irises bloomed as well!

Mama Madrone - work in progress

As I work on this piece the rains have finally come to the San Francisco Peninsula and the whole world is greening. I am recording a lot of photos and video to accompany the finished artwork ---visiting the old mama madrones on the hilltop, feeling embraced by the circles of trunks, watching the bark peel way from the spring green wood beneath--- it's so beautiful. Of all the trees the madrone is my favorite.

Already I see birds in the wind and wild irises leaves sprouting below the branches in this painting. I foresee purple as a color in the lower reaches. And more green --- much more green.