The Red Tree series began with a single painting, done in a rush for a deadline. I was engaged to “decorate” a luxury car showroom for six years, 2000-2005. I changed the artwork five times a year, and sometimes waited to the last minute to decide on the theme and style. In fact, I discovered/invented my “obverse” painting technique to meet this job assignment.
In early 2005, I decided to do large fauve landscapes, which creatively harkened back to my scenery design days. I remember that the group of trees in this painting started out midnight blue–not a good choice. Given the impetus of deadline and the spontaneity of panic, I quickly changed direction with solvent and a can of red and a theme was born

A year later, I started to explore this initial idea. Pollination was a small, 15″ x 8.5 sketch of the composition in landscape orientation with the addition of a road and a spray of gold.

As gold became a regular element of the series, from etched glyphs in the next two paintings, to the halo-perimeter in the successive ones, I began to describe the works as my fusion of Gaugin and Klimt. The changes in the rendering of trunks and branches can seen to develop throughout the series progression.

It’s been a very satisfy exploration that I hope to return to, someday. Maybe you could inspire me to do so.