Logan Woods #6

2022: This was a painting the was two years back and forth in the making.

The reference for this painting was an old photograph I took when I got my first digital SLR camera. The woods around my house has an organic mixture of trees: birch, oak, maple, and pine. That's usually the way New Jersey looks when you are not in the Pine Barrens. Because of that , in the fall the colors that combine in the woods can be quite breathtaking. I took this photograph around peak fall in the woods around my house. I was actually getting tired of photographing the same old ground scene; the old decaying forest floor and a thick grove of trees sprouting out. I wanted more color this time, capture more of the intense fall foliage hanging from the branches. So, I look up and capture the forest canopy. I printed it out on a piece of paper to paint it and forgot about it. I even deleted all the photographs I took that day. All I has was the piece of photograph paper for reference. Well, I forgot about it until two years ago in 2020 I wanted to do a large painting. I saw the print and remember what I did. I remembered what that day looked like. How the lighting was cloudy, but not too much that you lost contrasting light. I like how the main focus of the photograph where the yellow leaves on this cluster of birches. The oak pair in the foreground made a nice break in the composition. The colors are wild and just all over the place, blending together. There are deep reds that turn purplish -brown, many different blues, it even goes all the way to a cool yellow. It really looks like a leaf rainbow when you see it in person. I just wanted to capture that intensity of that scene and make you amazed in wonder about the colors and the trees.