Orange Tree With Purple Leaves

Orange Tree With Purple Leaves
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage on Canvas
18" x 24"

This one is the third tree completed in a set of four I am working on.  The first Two were  posted March 3rd and March 2nd earlier this year.   I'll show them all together once I finish the fourth one, but for now, here is Orange Tree.  She's beautiful to me.  I thought this quote from one of my favorite authors Willa Cather would be the perfect companion for her.  Enjoy!

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.  ~Willa Cather, 1913

Shining Green Birch Trees

Shining Green Birch
Oil on Canvas
by Cheryl Harris White
12 x 12

This was a fun little oil painting to do inspired by a few lines of poetry I came across.  I used a lot of light shades of greens and yellows which makes the forest seem to shimmer.  Happy to be playing in my oil paint again!

The trees are God's great alphabet;
With them He writes in shining green
Across the world His thoughts serene.
- Leonora Speyer

Red Tree with Green Leaves

Red Tree with Green Leaves
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage

18" x 24"
$75.00

 I liked the way this cool misty background turned out on this one.  I also like the idea of creating these trees with what ever color bark I choose instead of the same grayish tan bark we see on real trees everyday.  The result was in this piece, the roots ant the bark is what my eye most enjoys looking at.  These colors remind me of summer.

Intended to Grow

This is one of a series of four trees I have been finishing up.  The thing I liked most about doing these pieces, was how they grew as I worked.  Each layer became a platform for the next...until it was full and beautiful.  I just love things that grow.  There is one tree at the corner of our house that the previous owners had topped off and it hasn't grown since.  It is quite an annoyance, just sitting there taking up space, reminding me each day of it's wasted potential.  I think people are a lot like trees.   Some of them grow and it is beautiful to watch... but others are so damaged that they just sit there doing nothing.  We, and trees, were intended to grow,  and that is how I prefer it.  

Green Tree with Blue Leaves
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage
18" x 24"
$75.00

                                                     

My hand shake with 2013

2013 Hand Shake
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic on Canvas
36" x 36"
$200.00


This my handshake with 2013 saying, "Hello, my name is Cheryl. It's nice to meet you."  I'm not greeting 2013 with a list of promises or things I want to change or with the ridiculous mindset that this year will be better than the others, with fewer set backs, less losses, more successes than the years before.  We don't do that with people.  When we first meet them, do we say, "Hello, my name is Cheryl, I'm not that great right now, but soon I'm  going to reduce the amount of time I spend playing video games, be a better person, give more to charity, lower my sodium intake and get really skinny."  Not really.  When I meet a new person, I just like to listen to them, make eye contact and try to find something to like about them, which doesn't usually take very long.  2013 is the same to me.  It's just like any new acquaintance I meet... It's a new door I've never walked through... An interesting new friend I plan on getting to know.

I liked exploring that idea with each square on this painting.  Each empty square was a new beginning.  I stuck with a lot of green and yellow in the color palate but loved adding in some orange and red pops of color.  Each square turned out a little different, but together they make a very interesting visual combination.