Redtree Times

I am still looking for a title for this new painting,  a piece that is about 8″ by 26″on paper.  It’s done in the same tones as my recent interior pieces, mainly a coppery sepia with small bits of color.  The color ( or lack of  color) of this piece sets the tone and gives it the sense of drama that the scene suggests. 

I am, of course, focused on the tree and its motion as I try to find that part of the painting that will reveal this piece’s title.  I see a sort of defiance in the bend of the tree trunk and the way the limbs and leaves respond to and resist the wind that buffets the landscape.  I don’t know if the tree is viewing the sun that breaks through the clouds as a savior to take away the strain of this wind or if it is railing against the sun, seeing it as a vengeful power who allows such suffering.  There is a sort of fury implied here, at least in the way I see it.

I step back and try to see it in a different way, perhaps a gentler,  more placid light,  but my mind only sees it in that way now, full of fury.  Fuuny how the mind grabs onto one aspect and refuses to let loose of it.   But I’m hesitant to fully follow that interpretation without a bit more time to perhaps see this painting in a diiferent light with a different feel.  I just think there’s more to it than I’m seeing at first blush.

I’m pleased that this piece raises this ambiguity in myself, that it sparks conflicting emotions.  That suggests that there’s something beyond what I might have tried to consciously insert in it, that it has that certain something that I could never produce with intent.  All I could hope for my work.