With the introduction of crows, I’ve begun to realize that what is drawing me to these birds is their connection to my childhood memories. The other strong connection I can remember is to red pine trees. As a child, I spent countless hours under these trees playing, and since this project is focused on trees, I thought I should get out and photograph and sketch some pines.
Revisiting Sandy Hills, I wasn’t sure what kind of pine trees I could expect to find. As I walked along the trails there certainly were many species, but when I came to a little clearing, and saw that it was full of red pines, I was very excited. Spending time with these trees and their cones, needles and bark was really enjoyable.
Coming back to the studio I spent the afternoon drawing and I’ve realized that for this work I will not be including the crows after all! These pine trees work perfectly with the Cobalt palette I’ve developed (although I must admit that it took me the entire afternoon to come to grips with painting RED pines with only green). In the end, I think that what I have here is perfect for what I want to communicate.
Of course nothing is really ever wasted in my studio; I’m sure that the crows will come back at a later date.