Retrospective on a June walk

I walked through the neighbourhood late one beautiful June afternoon. On the way I saw an empty space where once a tree had grown. All that remained was a circle of dirt in a green lawn. The tree removal people had been there -- indeed the tree removal people had been all along that street. Not even a stump or a root left - extracted like so many bad teeth. This tree though was the inspiration for my 2009 Urban Tree.

Acrylic on paper (30" x 22")

I will remember it fondly.

Once I lived on a Mountain - reprised

Once I lived on a mountain - cypress trees grew there, in abundance.

Cypress in Yellow, 1998 (acrylic on paper)

Veils of Haifa, 1998 (acrylic on paper)

Cypresses at Bahji, 2000 (acrylic on paper)

They still grow there on terraces and in circles. They surround the olive groves and interact with palm trees, always reaching upward.

December 2015

Full moon, Toronto

Paper Collage with ink (6"x4")

O Urban Tree!

Don't get too big or too messy. Or else!

Blue Spruce, 2012

Large Tree, Old Town, 2012

Urban Tree, 2008

 Wadi Nisnas, 2005

 

Urban Tree, 2009

Just sayin'.

Once I Lived on a Mountain -- reprised

Once I lived on a mountain. It is an ancient mountain, a historic mountain, a significant mountain. Held to be sacred, still it is not spared modern development. Cities and towns grow all along its length.

Veils of Haifa, 1999 (canvas)

Parched for water half the year, yet it is green in spots and undeveloped still -- in spots.

Living on a Mountain

Once I lived on a mountain. It always gave choices.

Paper Collage 2014 (6" x 4")

Do I go up or down? Everyday.

Sunset Dance

Autumn light leaves early; the colours on days when the temperature is "crisp"are intense. After the leaves have fallen, after they've been raked up and carted away, the grass is left still green waiting for the snow.

The tree dances in the wind.

Urban Trees I Have Known

Sunlight flickers on a stone walkway lined with old trees. Walking up the staircase in the intense heat of the summer months in Haifa, a port city on Mt. Carmel, is oppressive. Even the shade of the tree-lined steps can't diminish the heat by much. 

Envisioning that intensity.

Blue Spruce

Native to the American West, this spruce is an ornamental tree, decorous on urban lawns.

It is a tree of humility -- especially when it curves or grows bent under piles of winter snow. It bows its head as it grows old, knowing perhaps that it will be replaced before it gets too large.

Urban Tree

Trees in landscape, trees in forests, trees on farms, on shores, on lakes, reflecting in water, are eloquent. Trees that become one following the horizon, inspire. Always!

I paint trees in settings other than where they actually are. Blues and greens in the bark after a rain have a special hue. I admire the shape of a tree when the leaves have gone and I have a lingering regret when the spring fills the branches with beautiful leaves. 

Urban trees are sometimes small, struggling, boxed in by concrete, hacked at by drivers not adept at parallel parking. Mature trees in old neighbourhoods are scarred by electric companies that feel the need to leave gaping holes in these things of beauty. 

Acrylic on paper (30" x 22")

One of my tributes to the urban tree.