Visiting the Old Oaks at Floracliff

Woody at Floracliff, detail

 I love to take hikes at Floracliff, a local nature sanctuary. It is an opportunity to relax in the woods and just be. One of my favorite hikes is to visit the old chinkapin oaks. In 2008, Floracliff's preserve director, Beverly James suspected there might be some old trees at the nature sanctuary. She approached dendrochronologist Neil Pederson about the possibility. Although Pederson was initially doubtful of standout old trees, he found out otherwise and you may read his account about that here. Naturally, this was an exciting discovery for Floracliff visitors. We can imagine the scene when the trees were young and all that they have seen through the centuries!

There are four trees that have particularly captivated my attention so I was drawn to make paintings of them and create a musical portrait for each. Using these visual and audio portraits, I created a video celebrating the old chinkapin oaks at Floracliff. 

I'm using this blog to post 'still' images of the paintings I made for this video and to add some more details.

On the way, hiking down to the old oaks, watercolor and pastel, 5.9 x 11.8"

My goal in creating a video about the old oaks hike was to encompass the experience, so I had to include a bit of the walking--andante. I had already considered that it would be funny to do a riff on the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. As it turned out, as I was working on this little painting, I attended a concert of trumpet and organ music and Mussorgsky's composition was included! Thus, the promenade was still warm in my ears. I tuned up my lever harp for a practice session and putting up the e, a, and b levers, I heard a sequence that was sympathetic with a walk in the woods. In fact, expanding out from the e, a, and b, I found that I was in a pentatonic mode. Mussorgsky's promenade is in the pentatonic mode! My improv for hiking down practically wrote itself.

Wolf Tree, watercolor/pastel, 10 x 7"

A wolf tree is kind of a counter-type in the old tree world. It exhibits more vigorous growth because at some point, its competitors were cut down and the tree was allowed to grow, not only up, but also out. Unlike the other old, old trees, the wolf tree expands outward. The angles of this tree encouraged me to use the passionate Phrygian mode. 

Number 4 Tree, watercolor/pastel, 11.8 x 5.9"

Neil Pederson armed Beverly James with some distinguishing features of old trees and where they might be located. Steep, southwest-facing slopes hold promise. Trees that exhibit 'balding' bark, low stem taper, high stem sinuosity and low crown volume are subjects to consider. James found a number of trees on a southwest-facing slope that held these qualities. Significant age was confirmed and Pederson deemed this spot on the sanctuary to be the epicenter. Within this arboreal treasure trove is a uniquely shaped tree. The sinuous upper branches form a 4-figure, so that is my name for this tree which sprouted around the year 1661. The number 4 assisted me in shaping the improv. I went to the Lydian mode which starts on the fourth pitch of a major scale. And then, I also focused on the 4th pitch of the Lydian scale. It has a light and airy sound to go with the light and airy crown of this tree.  

By the Tufa Falls, watercolor/pastel, 5.9 x 11.8"

Past the epicenter, we walk by the top of Elk Lick Falls and on around past the tufa formation created by calcium deposits that have trickled over the edge. It is a wondrous thing to view! My musical rendition continues with the promenade theme. 

Woody C. Guthtree, watercolor/pastel, 10 x 7"

The star of our venture is Woody, who was sprouted in approximately 1611. As Tom Kimmerer points out in his Venerable Trees book, that is the same year that Shakespeare's The Tempest was first performed. We have a link to the past right in our backyard! To portray Woody, I guess I could have played a Woody Guthrie tune, but it might still be under copyright, so I decided to be influenced by ancient chants in the Dorian mode. Of course, in the scheme of things, Dorian chants and even 400+ year-old trees are not that old. 

But, why did Woody make it this long without being harvested? Well, for one thing, his location is not convenient. Also, chinkapin oaks grow quite slowly, so their size is not conducive for logging. All the old trees at Floracliff are chinkapin oaks. This makes a case for late bloomers!

Young Old Tree in Afternoon Light, watercolor/pastel, 10 x 7"

We head up the hill, the sun is slanting through the trees. Indeed, the seasons are making their journey, though it seems like we were just in high summer. I wonder if the trees feel about time like I do?

This tree painting, of the Young Old Tree was painted this year. All the other tree portraits are from 2022. That autumn seemed further along and a bit more golden. 

Young Old Tree, watercolor/pastel, 10 x 7"

The Young Old Tree grows close to the tufa formation. We have indeed already walked by it, but I wanted Woody to be featured at the Golden Mean of our tale. And, I wanted to send us out on a Mixolydian tune as we celebrate the Jungling who is only about 150+ years old. This tree's growth is a bit more vigorous and I leave you with a musical portrait that is a bit more lively. 

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of the old oaks at Floracliff. I encourage you to make your own trek there to see this treasure of the Inner Bluegrass. To join an event or hike, please visit floracliff.org.

The Efficient Complexity of Nature

American Moss at Floracliff

On a very warm Saturday in November, I partook in the Long Hike at Floracliff. We climbed and strolled over 4 to 5 miles within the nature sanctuary. While striding over the terrain, I felt like a giant because of all the ecosystems beneath my feet, a feeling I have become sensitive to because of a richly informative book: The Forest Unseen, by David George Haskell.  Haskell is a professor of biology at the University of the South. He spent a year closely studying a square meter of earth in the forest surrounding Sewanee. The scene, though minute is mind-bogglingly complex. It is an insect-eat-everything world! The birds are eating the insects. Who eats whom might determine how far you can travel as a species. Moss has peculiar qualities that allow it to survive deluge and drought. Throughout, there is an enthralling description of light. Fortunately, Professor Haskell breaks it all down into manageable bites, with timely consideration throughout his year of observation. I am only up to September 23rd--Vulture, the book begins January 1st. This is a remarkable story of how everything is interconnected and in a fairly efficient, often surprising way. The author's perceptive abilities are simply amazing. I highly recommend this book.

         I was reflecting on this elaborate tapestry of flora and fauna. It made me realize why I enjoy layering media to make paintings. It is sympathetic to the layers of life that make up the forest. The natural properties of watercolor pigments interacting with the paper create a rich underpinning that is hard to create deliberately. The pastel on top has a complementary role, skimming the surface, deepening the texture. No wonder my landscape painting took off after I began to combine watercolor and pastel in my painting. Perhaps you would like to give it a go. I will be starting a new Experimenting with Watercolor and Pastel class early in 2013. Stay tuned!

The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature, by David George Haskell, Penguin Group,  2012

Grounded, watercolor/pastel
Lichen is one of the first subjects of The Forest Unseen

For information about my upcoming watercolor and pastel classes and information about happenings at the M S Rezny Studio/Gallery:  kathyreesjohnson.com   and msrezny.com

Speaking of Trees...

Hickory Ridge Oak-one of my favorite trees

...which I often am; I wanted to let you know about a wonderful book. It was introduced to me by a participant in my Experimenting with Watercolor and Pastel class at the Lexington Art Academy, which affirms once again the notion that teachers learn as much as their students in class.  Deborah brought in a book simply titled: Oak.  The subtitle is: One Tree, Three Years, Fifty Paintings. Artist Stephen Taylor found himself lost after losing both parents and an important love. He was not sure where to turn next in his life and work when some friends invited him to paint at their farm in Essex where he discovered his oak. As the subtitle suggests, Taylor spent three years studying and painting the tree in all kinds of weather, day and night (there are some wonderful night time paintings.) He found his way again simply by observing closely a single spot on earth.

        This rings true for me. Trees physically link heaven and earth with their tall stature. This is true in paintings as well as life. They also link us with eternity as they often live to be hundreds of years old. Stephen Taylor's tree, for example, "was already home to skylarks and starlings when Jane Austen was a baby and George III the ruler of the American colonies" (from the foreword by Alain de Botton.)  The chinquapin oak at Floracliff is thought to be over 400 years old. So in a time of rapid change and loss, trees can be of great comfort. They are naturally beautiful and provide shade and shelter as well as paper and wood.  I highly recommend this book:  Oak: One Tree, Three Years, Fifty Paintings, by Stephen Taylor, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, New York, 2012. Thanks, Deborah!

   p.s. There are two Experimenting with Watercolor & Pastel classes coming up at the Lexington Art Academy.  Please go to: www.lexingtonartacademy.com for more information and registration.

Following Something Along



In the Floracliff woods, a year later

 I have a favorite book called Creative Autheniticity, by landscape painter Ian Roberts.  It could just as well be called To Thine Own Self be True. Roberts tells it like it is; that sooner or later we will know that we just have to be ourselves.  We can't help it.

     In the book, Roberts lays out 16 principles to clarify and deepen your artistic vision. My favorite principle at the moment is: Follow Something Along. Roberts makes the point that many of the great artists actually had one theme that they elaborated on for much of their career.  It is not necessary to take on the whole world to express yourself as an artist.

        I was thinking about this over the weekend when I returned to Floracliff for a walk in the autumn woods. A year ago, I was present at Floracliff for the 400th birthday of Woody, the chinquapin oak (please see my original post Into the Woods and later post Into the Woods, Part II.)  If there is a place that I am always at home, it is in the woods. Not only do I feel at home, but I feel elated, even though I am at the base of the trees and not in the heady upper branches.  It is very clear that this is my artistic theme. While I enjoy painting people, animals and all sorts of places, I'll always want to come back to the woods.  This is the vein to be mined, the bone to be gnawed.  Let me add this quote that Roberts includes:

Like to do your work as much as a dog likes to

gnaw a bone and go at it with equal interest and exclusion

of everything else.   ---- Robert Henry

       I highly recommend this book! 

    

Creative Authenticity: 16 Principles to Clarify and Deepen Your Artistic Vision

                                                           by Ian Roberts, published by the Atelier Saint-Luc Press

                                                            

Dancing Landscape  Floracliff 2010