Hepatica and Moss

"Hepatica and Moss" 11"x 15" watercolor

This is watercolor done last month of Hepatica and Moss on the forest floor.  The original painting is now in a private collection.  I did the painting as the basis for a limited edition print which is available by contacting my studio.  Stinehour Wemyss Editions has made an incredibly faithful archival print from my original watercolor.  They are such a pleasure to work with because they are incredibly expert!  So far 10 have been printed.  The edition will be limited to 100.

Next begins work on a group of paintings of forest labor that will fill out this body of work.  At the same time I am beginning to plan how to gather and exhibit all the work I've done on this topic over the  past 18 years.  This is complicated and exciting and will take several years to accomplish.  I have every hope that I will be collaborating on this presentation with poet Verandah Porche who will add another dimension or two to the work! 

In the meantime there is a watercolor to complete and a visit next week to the Governor's Institute on the Arts to prepare for.  I will be giving both a workshop and an evening slide talk there.

This is an image of a watercolor I did this fall. It is of Larry and Mark Sherman on a job they had in Lincoln, Vermont a couple years ago. This scene was on a very cold day in March, as they watched the truck loading at the landing. Mount Abraham can be seen in the background.

Here is Paul Cate working in the woods with his forwarder. He jokes that other loggers ask him when this machine is going to "grow up".

Things Paul has said in conversation continue to resonate with me. He is committed to careful quality work in harvesting. As he and other foresters have said to me, it's not about the trees we cut, it's about the ones we leave standing.

As I continue to brew the painting ideas to envisage the future of our forests the idea of sustainability keeps pushing resource extraction out of the picture. It's a paradigm shift that's been underway in the daily lives of people like Paul for quite a while.