Tree of Life

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Twin Oaks II Oil John Hulsey

“I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch,or an old acquaintance among the pines.”
- Henry David Thoreau

We, too, have favorite trees—trees that we have studied and painted through all the seasons as well as trees that we have taken special trips to visit and paint, such as the giant Redwoods of California.

They seem to us to hold a kind of wisdom—the way they take whatever comes without complaint while providing us with the very essentials of life. The old oaks, in particular, with their sturdy strength, endurance and life-giving qualities symbolize the very essence of positive living and reliability. Who hasn’t enjoyed the refuge of the shade of a majestic oak on a summer’s day? Their upwards-reaching branches seem to be a vertical conduit between the earth and the sky. We are …