The formal elements within these forest paintings are: color, dimension, line, mass and shape. These formal elements inspire the feelings of mystery and intrigue the forest evokes. The feelings become the informal products of our imagination.

​

In these forest paintings I really like the play of positive and negative space. We are invited in as players as if to take part on a stage to perform the dance of life. We witness the play of life and decay. Life and death become two sides of the same coin. Supposed opposites merge and become one. Am I seeing the trees or are the trees seeing me?

​

Life lives on death and death lives on life.

​

In the forest there is the play of vertical, angled and horizontal. There is also the crazy randomness of branches and shrubbery going in every direction, giving the orderliness of upright forms an unordered look. 

​

In the forest there is a play of light and dark. There is the play of sun and shadow. Within the deepest sections we witness a ray of light finding it's way through the canopy to the forest floor and illuminate that one branch of Oregon Grape. We sense that God does live here and is present before our eyes.

​

The great roots hold the earth. They buttress out pulling the earth into themselves. The vast branches touch the sky. Sometimes these branches are as big as trees – trees growing out of trees. The earth meets the sky here and kisses the sun. The tree trunks remind me of us humans; upright beings that act as conduits between heaven and earth.

​