Sky Trees

Sky Trees is unique among my paintings because it is one where the idea came straight to my mind, and wasn't derived from a subconscious scribble or remembered dream. I noticed one day while waiting at a stoplight how pretty the blue sky was in the trees, and had the thought: what would it look like if the sky became trees, if the blue of the sky grew up the trunks of the trees, and made another world upside down? As soon as I got home I quickly sketched out the idea.


As you can see, the original sketch had rabbits running through the upside down leaves which doubled as grass, but that idea didn't make it through to the final painting stages. At first I had no more plans for the space between the sky/tree trunks than to make them black shadows, or poles.

The painting went pretty quickly, in about three days, since I already had the idea solid in mind and didn't want to deviate much from it. Here's the first few hours' work, in several layers of pastel:

I struggled a while to make brown blend into blue evenly and clean. I decided to stop fighting it and make the trees white, like birches or aspens. It was really fun to watch it progress and take on different aspects as I worked. For a while, before I built the leaves much, it looked as if the sky were growing roots.


When I gave the shadows/poles between the sky/tree trunks some form and shape, they began to have personality, and so at that point I decided to add faces to them. I pulled out a handful of subconscious drawing sketches, of faces I saw in patterns of wood grain on doors, and had quickly caught on paper.



(I have further plans for this fish with a face)


With the addition of the faces, the painting felt complete. Continually while working on it I would turn it around and paint with the tress right-side up, or vice versa. I feel that there's no permanent orientation for this painting. My daughter certainly didn't agree with me, if she saw it one way she'd get all upset: "mommy picture upside down!" But I like the fact that it can be turned around when you're ready for a fresh look at it.

To view this painting the other way, or see the details visit this page and click on "flip image" or "zoom."