ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING TITLED OMEGA WINTER PAYS HOMAGE TO AN OLD WEEPING BEECH TREE

Painterly is not for me - simplicity is - if I wanted to convey every noisy detail - I'd use a camera...

The European Weeping Beech...Fagus Sylvatica L...with its umbrella forming draping limbs that when in full summer splendor can provide hiding places under their heavy low "weeping" branches.  Some can be pruned to form entry ways on toward the "room" around their ample trunks, while some have such heavy low reaching branches that from a distance they almost look like a giant floor length Victorian hooped skirt!

The trunks can be almost misshapen with gnarly twisted limbs and roots that could even look Halloween spooky, while some display a dark grey silvery smooth texture.  It forms "wound growths" where limbs have been removed or when the bark is physically compromised in some way...scars...if you will.

All this glorious showiness is best appreciated in summer...yet all seasons are promising in form.

As New England's deciduous trees undress for winter, the Weeping Beech often holds on to some of their leaves...though shriveled shut...just enough cover for protection.  Not quite deciduous...not quite evergreen...surviving for more than 100 cold New England winters.  Real hardy in zones 4-7.

Yet they have their Achilles heel underneath that splendid full skirt.  Winter snow salt splashing onto their trunk, fungal disease, boring pests and deadly carpenter ants can bring down this silver giant.

History of its arrival in America:  Under the protection of Samuel Browne Parsons...it is said that the first weeping beech seedling arrived in USA in 1847 from Europe...possibly the ancestor of all weeping beech trees that grace us with their discernable beauty and style.  Please visit: naturewalk.yale.edu for more info.

About this tree painting: the lingering RN instinct in me... tried to make it look not quite as sickly as it was two early winters ago...sadly...before it was cut down the following summer.  As a painter, one does not have to show all that is glum...it is up to the viewer to decide.  Shown here only the mid section as these are huge trees with vastly interesting lower trunks and roots.

Here it is as it might have looked years ago when this one still enjoyed its twilight years...with the trunk shown smoother...still showing its latest scars...

The palette: somewhat limited, using six oil pigments plus white and the darkened tones influenced a bit by Alfred Maurer's summer exhibit...see 5th blog below...the browns, blacks, dark grays and stark whites with a touch of buttery yellow against a lilac blue sky...flat swaths of pigment...some outlines...not painterly...make this completely self learned painter...very happy.

...else why paint?

All images design concept text content are original and solely owned by Mimi Dee and may not be reproduced in any form without written permission.  Oct 2, 2015

More detailed description about this painting - please click second red links just above the blue date and time above.