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.

Stairs in Sunlight

Sunlight flickers on a stone staircase lined with old trees.

Wadi Nisnas (2005 paper)

Stairs in Sunlight (2007 paper)

Wadi in Haifa (2009 canvas)

I remember the ascent.

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'.

Large Trees

Large trees grow in small towns with space around them. In small towns, trees grow tall and large in branch and limb. They age with beauty; they are rich in time.

They pull up and push down -- reaching for the sky and seeking the earth.

Under the August sun

Another set of stairs, without the slim comfort of shade, under a relentless sun, are also laborious to climb. Looking up, the lone tree at the top appears as a fragmented object.

Eyes, blinded by the light, see the tree and its branches shattered.

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.