The California Arborescence series taps the beauty of the distinct and varied trees that define our forests and describe our California landscapes. Our wonderful native trees are the bones from which shrubs, lichens, groundcovers, and even wildlife, hang. As a landscape architect used to selecting tree species for their ability to “behave” properly in a given constructed setting, I admire our natives’ evolved ability to perfectly serve and thrive in their distinct ecosystems.
The title of each piece in this series is a play on the botanical name for the tree that is represented. The first, capitalized, word is the tree’s genus. The second word, which is not capitalized, is the species of the tree. The third word, capitalized and surrounded by single quotation marks, is a fictitious cultivar (cultivated variety) name that I made up to imply or reinforce the concept of the painting.
Paintings within this series that are sold framed feature handmade one-of-a-kind frames that I paint and adorn using bark, leaves, cones, seeds and other natural items gleaned from beneath the subject tree.
