“Vine Maples” 36″ x 48″ oil and metal leaf on canvas – $4,000
When we built my studio behind our house many years ago, the dimensions of the building were determined by the vine maple trees at three of the corners. Over the years I have often wished for a larger studio, but I’m very glad to still have those three trees for constant inspiration.
We have several fir trees as well, but the vine maples always provide the color in our yard in the fall and I enjoy looking out my kitchen window and watching the changes of the seasons. I even love their bare branches in the winter because the trunks and limbs are so graceful, but find such joy in seeing the first tiny bright green leaves develop.
Recently I decided to paint a series of just these trees in several combinations. In the past I’ve done many paintings of vine maples on Santiam Pass as forests scenes with firs and aspen trees, but since I’ve been painting with oil and metal leaf, I prefer a simpler composition. I need more negative space around the images to allow the metal leaf pattern to develop.
This painting is one I just completed for a fall show and painted the green leaves as I know they will look in late October.
