After the previous, rather heavy philosophical post, I thought maybe you’d like to look up into that willow tree again with me.
When I was in Parc Angrignon for a walk on Saturday afternoon, my goal was to be out in the beautiful late fall weather but also to take some pictures for potential paintings later on. Not far into the park, there’s a large willow on the banks of a pond. I can never resist getting under trees with long overhanging branches, into that protected and magical space where the canopy hangs around you like a translucent curtain rustled by the wind, and the light filters through from above.
When I did that, my immediate thought was that I wanted to try to paint what I was seeing and feeling there. The photograph I posted yesterday is a different view, taken to highlight the sun itself, and it’s cropped. This watercolor, done in my sketchbook today, attempts to capture the delicacy of all the small willow leaves, the pliable branches that sway off the massive main trunk, and the light as it shines through the leaves. The textile-like tapestry of leaves, golden on the outside, dark olive green on the inside, was set off by the pure blue of the sky seen through the millions of spaces between the leaves.
I can go back to that place and that feeling more easily through the painting than through the photograph, and hope you can too.
