Backlit Lollipop Trees

"Backlit Lollipop Trees" ©Laura Gable, oil on 11x14 stretched linen

It's all experimenting, really. Isn't it? My friend who owns the antique store on the corner gave me this sweet little stretched linen "canvas" ... so again I did a bit of experimenting with the hazy subtle forest in the background and the glowing trunks with just that skiff of light on their edges. The foliage on the foreground trees ended up looking a bit Dr-Seussian and reminds me of those Lollipop trees we all painted in grade school.

The plein air artists who write these insightful art books ask us to return to painting these sorts of trees, or a version thereof. In an effort to get the eye back to seeing it as a mass of varying tones rather than just a bunch of leaves. If we were to paint all those little leaves, it would surely make the eyes cross. Though I admit in the past, I've been known to do so. Though I may have been a lot younger. ;-)