“There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”
June 30th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 12 x 16 in,
(sold)

This one is a few tweaks shy of being done if not overdone. The weather was beautiful and although the fields would have been gorgeous to paint, I have been trying to use my Saturdays to struggle with subject I find difficult. A few months back I declared war on all deciduous trees, but shortly thereafter recanted, realizing that “tout comprendre, c’est tout pardonner.” In other words, because I find them so difficult, I should be that much more vested in trying to paint them. As I said before, painting a tree is not a study in painting an object, but a study in observing a relationship, and rendering it as sincerely as possible – which is difficult when you have to grapple with so many different value scales in one place. Anyway, this was an attempt I’ll call 3/4 successful.