An old friend of mine got in touch to chat about painting and we got to talking about his love of trees in pictures. This got me to thinking about a little project I'd promised myself a while ago. Since my last visit to the States I'd decided that at some stage I'd get around to producing some pictures of aspens. I initially became interested in aspens through the photographs of Ansel Adams. At that time I was making a lot of monochrome photographic images and I spent some time seeking out attractive stands of trees including aspens or similar species like birch and making prints of my pictures.
Since beginning painting the interest had continued and I found many images in the collection of images produced by the plein air movement in the States. The aspen is a common subject over there. So having arrived at the notion of making some tree pictures, it wasn't a big jump to decide on aspen as a suitable subject. So I had a browse through some images on the net and found a number by the West Coast artist, Kathleen Dunphy. I selected one of these and began a painting based on it. If in doubt use the work of an expert to emulate.
The painting is not yet finished but it is getting close. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Aspens (after Kathleen Dunphy) - Oil on canvas board 20" x 16"
