For the love of trees
how i'm painting my favorite memory place and who i'm trying to emulate
I’ve been trying to push forward a project that has been on my mind a lot lately. As our house renovation is continuing, and as we get closer to finally being able to add paint and other finishes, the “house in construction” that I’ve grown so accustomed to living in is starting to feel more finished. Until now, there have been so many spaces that were getting demolished or painted over, that thus far I have looked at it as a playground of sorts - I can play around with techniques, paint whatever I want, or in other words use the spaces as a lab to test things out. It doesn’t matter if it turns out well because it will go away in the end anyway!
I have always been a bit of a perfectionist, which I’m not proudly admitting - I have a vision in my head of the destination, the final image of a thing, and I either try very hard to realize that image (which never turns out the same), or I’m so in love with the concept that I never begin, because I’m afraid of how far from it the result will be.
But as I can sense that the areas-to-be-demolished will actually in reality soon be demolished…I feel like my playground might not be around for very much longer. So I’m pushing to play and test those theories! And trying very, very hard to try to enjoy the process and not focus on the outcome.
One of these spaces is a pony wall that is serving as a hallway railing at the moment. It will eventually be replaced by an open & airy railing, but for now it has been a long, blank wall - right at eye-level of my toddler (who is growing taller by the minute). In my dream image, I wanted to paint a magical landscape to wrap around her, and possibly with some of her favorite animated characters.
So far, I seem to have reverted to my favorite topic and thing to paint - a landscape with lots and lots of trees.
I grew up in the countryside in Virginia, and I think that must be where my love of landscape began. It didn’t really come to the forefront of my mind, however, until I was missing it and in a place so opposite of that I couldn’t breathe. We lived in Dubai for 3 years, and while there were many interesting and beautiful things about living there, it was sand…sand…sand. I had never missed greenery so much. I had never had a desire to garden - but I even created a plant wall and learned how to care for all of them; I bought a green rug. And I started painting a lot of landscapes:
There is a field on the drive to my mom’s house that is the primary mental image I keep going back to of the perfect field with the perfect trees. Now it is overgrown with weed trees, but it used to be a wide expanse of field with the forest behind it, and the most magical thing about it was experiencing it - if you drove along the road at the end of a hot summer, at twilight in August, the whole field was filled with fireflies. There were so many that the twinkling lights enveloped you completely. Every summer I would try to drive that route at the perfect time of night to relive this experience, and with the exception of those few years when it was peak magic, I haven’t been able to experience it again. And so I keep trying to paint it and illustrate my favorite place from memory.
So here we are! I decided to try to paint that field. My idea is to glue little round mirrors onto the wall for the fireflies and hope that they bounce light around the space. For now, I am trying to improve and learn new techniques on how to paint the trees:
On the very far left, you can see the detail that I’ve been working on.
I have been using lime paints by Color Atelier, which dry much lighter than the color in the jar, and have a translucent quality that I’m really loving. So far, the colors that seem to be working best are:
Green base: 115 Cypress Ink
Sky base: 111 Whispering Blue
Trees in background: 222 Blue Fog
Trees in foreground: 218 Ardoise
As I’ve been painting, I’ve been drawing a lot of inspiration from my favorite artists, and trying to identify why I love their work and really study their techniques.
So, my current roundup of absolute favorites:
Susan Harter
I first found Susan’s work when I was searching Pinterest for images for my house renovation mood boards. I love her landscape paintings - they are from different regions and come in different color ways, and I’m most drawn to the soft & faded ones. I have been decided on using one of her murals in my living room for the past 4 years now.
Maria Trimbell
Maria’s trees and the detail she paints are absolutely exquisite. She also uses lime paints and she’s the reason I wanted to try painting with them. Eventually I’m planning on painting much larger trees and studying how she layers and paints leaves in such detail.
Charlotte Terrell
I have found Charlotte’s work relatively recently, but I can’t seem to stop saving images of it. It has everything I love - landscapes, trees, and that ethereal quality I can’t quite put my finger on. I will definitely be studying her use of color and trying to mimic her blending techniques to see what I can learn. And the dream would be to own one of her pieces.
Camilla Jorvad
Lastly, please check out Camilla’s photography. My favorites are the ethereal photographs of her garden.
Please let me know if there are any other artists I must follow, or if you have any tips for painting murals such as these!
If you know of someone who would enjoy following along with my work, then please share this newsletter.
Enjoy the beautiful weather and happy Friday!
Anna
Dear lady, this letter was exquisite, as are you and per usual. Your oil paintings of Warsaw are wonderful, Anna! And I adore the idea of firefly light created by little mirrors on your mural. The nostalgia-rich story of your drive through Virginia was so transportive, I was nearly in tears! I have two book recommendations for you: Painting Time by Maylis de Kerangal (translated from its original French) bc the main character is a painter who specializes in Trompe-l'œil. *Spectacular* Also, regarding perfectionism (raises hand), The Perfectionists Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schaffer is umm, PERFECT. I listened on audio as well as read the hard copy. Her voice is so soothing, and I’d highly rec that route if you have some time to spend with your headphones. :) <3U!