My thanks for the collectors that purchased this work, and to the owners of the gallery that invited me to show there.
 
Exhibited: Merritt Gallery, Baltimore, & Renaissance Fine Arts, Chevy Chase, MD and Haverford, PA
 
About this work:
In this oil, I made an early effort to create a piece with a more ‘organic’ feel. There is a lot more openness to the composition in way the trees are spaced and there is more depth compared to my other works like this.
 
I love these forest ‘slices’ and the endless possibilities they provide me. This particular oil began with my putting in a variety of colors to work out later. There wasn’t a color plan, only the start of a painting with a loose arrangement of trees. 
 
After the second session in the studio and a couple of days of not seeing the oil, I was very surprised to find that the oil had come together very nicely. It was far beyond a start. The painting was very well-developed and was almost finished. It was as if someone had been painting on it in the night when I wasn’t around… a studio rarity.
 
I left the raw look, not going for polish. The far background needed more work. The light behind the trees was crisp in some places and hazy in others, giving me a choice of how to go forward. After some deliberation, the haze won out, creating more depth and a very nice counterpoint to the clarity of the foreground.
 
The painting titled itself as well. Nice.