indigo pears

This is my 4th day of being a blogger. I am practicing sending
photos from 2 different files onto my post....hmmm.

These are photos taken by my huysband Steve
while we were attending Art in the Park an event at our
local city park last weekend.

I t was a glorious day blue skies, cooler weather and the
park was full of wonderful artists, beautiful flowers,
birds, bees and butterflies. A tennis match was being
held nearby whcih supplied us with even more spectators for our art!

Several of us were inspired to paint and amazing Osage
orange tree which has survived many decades in this
location. It is simply massive, with huge knarly roots
reaching out all around it. It has two main trunks whose smooth bark is deeply grooved and rusty in color.
These trees are also called "bois d'arc" and have one of the hardest woods of any tree. The wood was prized by early native peoples for making strong weapons.

However, this tree seems to have a gentle nurturing presence. I can picture it as a "story tree" with children gathered around to listen.


I have come to realize (remember?) two things. First, it is important to have some other object in the picture for a reference when you want to show size...a massive tree. Second, so many times, the artist is better off painting the ordinary in a new way rather than trying to capture the extraordinary!

Still it was a fun exersize and a lovely day for plein aire work!




I've spent several minutes now, trying to upload the watercolor I painted of the tree...I have to go now....will try again later.