31 x 89"
2005
This leaf stopped me in my tracks one day in the forest. I
had been picking up and examining bay leaves for years, but had always concluded
that they would be too difficult to paint. With this leaf, I realized that I would have to
make the effort.
California Bay trees, Umbellularia Californica, get no respect from loggers wishing that they were oak, redwood, or Douglas fir. They sometimes suffer the extreme indignity of being cut down for their burl - leaving a crater in the forest with a dead tree lying next to it, while the burl becomes nothing more than the trim of a luxury car. However, they are wonderful trees to be in, under, and around, evergreen, providing lots of shade, and offering three distinct fragrances - the powerful aroma of the fresh crushed leaves, the sweeter smell of crushed dried leaves, and the delicate scent of the tiny, but plentiful blossoms that are a harbinger of spring in January and February. They are also incredibly robust trees - water-loving yet drought tolerant, and very sturdy - a tree bent over double (for example, by an oak falling on it) will snap and splinter, then send up shoots all along the new horizontal section and grow into a hedge.
In this leaf, like the combination of analagous colors, but most of
all I love the way the leaf cells are chaotic over small areas, but then fall
into an organized pattern of veins and tributaries. As I worked on the painting,
I used this organization of veins to find my way to cells in order to paint them.
I chose a painted cell size of 1", but then realized that
this would result in a painting that would be 11 feet tall. I compromised on just
under 3/4", so as to have a painting that would fit between the ceiling and
baseboard in my house. Keeping the painting large gave it a powerful presence - my way of trying to win back the respect these trees deserve.
Because of the large size of this work, I painted it on a
custom panel made by John Annesley Company of Healdsburg.
From a private collection.
Giclee prints available: sizes are about 11x32" (37%) and 8x22" (25%).