Aspens in Every Season

close up detail

A Year of Aspens

each 7.5 x 22"

First a huge thank you to everyone who has "liked" the Southwestern Watercolor Society facebook page that I have started for SWS.  I truly appreciate it.  If you have any thoughts on what you would like to see on it, please let me know.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving for the Americans out there.  For us it is always nice to spend time with family and see our kids play with their cousins.

I had started doing these aspens a few weeks ago.  The idea first came to me while hiking in Beaver Creek, Colorado.  I took so many photos trying to capture what it was like to be surrounded by so many aspens.  Did you know that the aspens are actually all connected underground by their roots and that they can actually smother or deprive another tree type by surrounding it and drinking all of the water.  Also, aspen trees have a very low flammability rate so they actually help prevent forest fires from spreading.  

Back to my inspiration.  After taking photos and different times of the day and catching the sunlight in the morning, backlit trees and evenin sunset, I couldn't decide what time of day I wanted to paint.  The more I thought of it, the aspens through out the year came about.  Like my Sea of Sails paintings, I wanted the viewer to feel as though they were surrounded by aspens, hence the exagerated horizontal proportion of the paper.  I think I will still do another winter scene with pine trees, too.  To see close up details and the process, visit my facebook page.  The fall close up got the most comments with the yellow a close second.  

I plan on showing these in my spring show as one piece.  I will have all four framed together. 

Let me know what you think - good or bad.  I love hearing your suggestions.