Well Hello Old Friend

Old Friend

24 x 36"

acrylic on canvas
© Nicki Ault, 2011 
sold 

Okay.... I feel like saying "Ta daaaa!" because this one feels like it has been a long time in the making, so "Ta daaaa!"

As I explained a few posts ago, this is a tree I have painted before but I had forgotten where I had seen it. This past Labour Day weekend I was at Waskesiu Lake with my family and I wandered out one evening to take resource photos for the upcoming winter months. At one point I happened to look up at the tree I was passing and immediately thought, "Well hello old friend!" I had found it, glorious as ever and as unique as the day I first saw it. I love this tree. I love the dead, broken lower branches, I love the foliage reaching for the sky, I love the markings on the trunk, I love that it stands apart from the rest of the forest. I love this tree.

one of the distant pictures

I took of my old friend

Now down to business. Do you think I should perhaps add another leafy bit on the left down at the very bottom near the tree trunk so less sky shows? Or perhaps it is the actual lower left corner that is bothering me and I should make it more leafy with no sky showing there. It's just a small triangle of sky, but I wonder? I realize I am being finicky, but that's my way. All that being said, I love the trunk.

Please share your thoughts, ideas, feedback, wisdom... or lack thereof.  I'm all ears. No comment is silly.

And one more question... do you have a favorite tree?

Old Friend- More Progress

Old Friend

(in progress)

24 x 36"

acrylic on canvas
© Nicki Ault, 2011  

We're gettin' there!

Old Friend- Tree in Progress

 Old Friend  
(in progress)

 24 x 36"

acrylic on canvas

I began a painting last Friday and continued working on it today. I have been wanting to tackle another tree from a low perspective looking up. I tried it in "Autumn Dance" and it was never what I wanted it to be- in fact it is now facing the wall at the studio. It could have been the square format on that piece that really threw me off. At any rate I am trying it on a rectangular canvas and it feels much better... plus this time I am painting a Birch tree... and using acrylics.

When I was at Waskesiu Lake with my family on the Labour Day long weekend, I went for an evening walk with the purpose of taking resource photos to use this winter. As I wandered along a trail behind the Nature Centre I was looking up at all of the gorgeous Birches. I glanced at this beautiful tree to my right and without as much as a nano-second of hesitation I thought, "Well, hello old friend!" As I stared at the tree wondering why it seemed so familiar, I realized it was the same tree I painted in "Looking Up" two years ago! I had long forgotten where that tree was, but the instant I saw it again I knew we had "met" before.