Over time trees are felled due to the parasitic borers, invasive species that devour the interior of the trees. This tree didn't have the fateful orange line spray painted on it bark signifying impending destruction by city chainsaws, but the neighboring tree did. To me the branches were trying to escape, to find a new place. The scene was over at Benny park/sports complex, the funny windows on the bottom right is the underground basketball court, and the building in the background is the health center. We are lucky to have all these facilities nearby, and it gives me a place to paint.The movement int the tree branches was really there, and I embellished slightly as Hiroshige did in a lot of his 19th century prints.
Painting trees is challenging, the temptation is to go for a blob of green and some brown branches. The bark of this tree was brownish but with a yellow/green tinge to it. My first instinct was to mix burnt sienna (a rusty earth, PR1010) with indothrene blue (dark navy blue, PB60), but this would produce a charcoal grey. Then I thought raw umber, a dark chocolate, instead of the burnt sienna. Nothing seemed right, and I thought back to MacEvoy's Handprint webpage and the artist's colour wheel that has every paint ever made, and his concept of mixing complements. Al this flashed through my mind in a split second as I sat there staring at this tree. Raw umber (PBr7) with phthalo green (PG7) was the answer, this mix produced a near identical version of the tree bark. The reason? Both raw umber, and phthalo green, have a yellow component, so when you combine it creates a kind of chocolate pistachio. Perfect.
6 x 7.5" cold press watercolour, September 2020
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