birches

These are the birches that welcome us to our home in Vermont.  They grow along the top of our property, between our driveway and the road.  They inspired these ATCs (artist trading cards). The birch bark I used in these pieces is from downed branches (stripping bark from growing trees does them no good).   I love the colors and texture of the bark.

The birches also inspired this little study of the road in the winter, done in February 2008.

The natural world inspires a lot of my work.  My Dad was a transcendentalist at heart and growing up, we spent many weekend afternoons hiking as a family at local Audubon sanctuaries.  He helped us notice the moss, rocks and wildflowers and the way sunlight filtered into the woods.  We canoed on the Neponset and Charles Rivers, and I remember how the water coming off the paddles created graceful swirls and eddies in the river.  We even listened to birdcalls on Roger Tory Peterson LPs.  My Dad's true church was in the woods.  His watercolors hang in my house as a gentle reminder of his legacy.

My Dad's grandfather died before I was born.  He was a dentist, and like my Dad, painted as a hobby.  This is one of his pieces.  And look, it's birches!  Reminds me of the Frost poem "The Road Not Taken".