Artist’s Statement - Arboreous Rex

The astonishing complexity and remarkable beauty of trees have long held my fascination. Looking through my journals from over the past thirty years, I see that trees have been a theme I’ve explored on many occasions. However, in 2018 after reading Peter Wollheben’s bestselling book, The Hidden Life of Trees, my attraction to these gentle giants came into focus like never before. The knowledge revealed in this outstanding book gripped my soul, and it lured me to forests, both for the solitude and the community I now have with these majestic life forms. If I choose to be in a crowd, let them be oaks, beeches, sycamores, maples, elms, and spruce. 

I am never alone in the forest.  

I’ve made pilgrimages to historical sites to visit legendary trees such as “General Sherman,” the largest tree on the planet found high up in the Sequoia National Forest, and the ancient Bristlecone Pines in the White Mountains of California. These were both humbling experiences.

Like the human body, trees have been a source of artistic inspiration for thousands of years. Fortunately, I enjoy working with both and see many formal commonalities. One day I may combine them in an Eden-like narrative. However, my present pursuit of expressing the inherently abstract qualities found in trees, their linear forms, positive and negative shapes, color, textures, and patterns is inspiring, especially on a large scale. To accomplish this, I prefer to paint tree portraits rather than landscapes favoring deciduous trees over conifers as they twist and turn when reaching for the sun. I rarely paint a particular tree but instead conjure an image that recalls many trees I’ve met.

From Corot to Hockney, trees are a well-studied subject that remains fascinating to artists today. Arboreous Rex is by no means an original theme, but because trees still offer wonder scientifically, importance environmentally, and meaning socially, they continue to invite contemporary examination.