What I've Learned From Trees.

With coffee in hand, I sat as a bump on a log in the middle of Brown County State Park, near Nashville Indiana and listened to the stirrings of a new day. It is moments like this, that helps me shed all the clutter of daily life, and I can take on the issue of the world around me. Trees. Big trees. How would I paint them? What color what I put on my palette? They're everywhere... it shouldn't be hard. Years ago, I signed up for a plein air art class with my friend Linda. Part of plein air painting is standing out in the forest and try to see the trees. My trees were blobs on the canvas. Linda did a much better job of capturing the essence of them. I gave up on trees, and she went on and became a very successful painter.

I haven't thought about trees much lately, until I had a conversation last week, with an art teacher from high school. It was art teachers that changed my life growing up. I found acceptance in those classes. Annette was the best. Not much older than her students, she opened the world and accepted us for who we were. And, she saw something in me, when all I could see was depression and not fitting in. There was a small band of us, that naturally gravitated towards each other. Our artist souls were beckoning to each other, when words couldn't be found. Our creative projects became home for us, as we fed the essence of our being.

Annette talked about taking an art class and learning how to paint trees. I smiled thinking of my blobs. "The teacher keeps commenting on how I well I can capture the essence of trees"

I found the secret this morning to painting trees. Its not all the greens, and browns to brush on the canvas. Its the light coming thru that give the contrast. I don't think I had enough in my life years ago to see the light coming thru the branches. I only saw the blobs of my life. They all blended together. Linda, could see it. Her life growing up was such a struggle of conflicts and contrasts. Mine was ordinary. It wasn't until later, when life forced me into the hard parts, and the joy of discovery, that the contrast started to become clearer to me. I can see the light now thru the branches. I can see how to paint those trees. Linda found it right away. Annette is discovering it now.

Its time, to pick up that paint brush again, and paint those trees.