Mural Update

I am having fun with the pear tree mural. While my studio is only large enough to see two panels at a time, I have figured out that I can photograph each panel and Photoshop them all together to see the composition. Cool!
The red background is distracting and rather pretty, like a Pompei mural, but will be covered with silver (aluminum) leaf.

Here is the great Vincent Van Gogh's beautiful painting "Almond Blossom" from 1890

Gustave Klimt painted this pear tree in 1903. I don't find it as interesting as his later, more graphic work.

A few years later Piet Mondrian started his journey towards the famous paintings of colored grids by looking at the patterns of tree branches Piet Mondrian Red Tree 1908
Piet Mondrian Grey Tree 1911

Closer to home here is a lovely painting by Canadian artist Garry Kaye who lives on Salt Spring Island, just around the corner from here. It is acrylic, measures 36"x48" and was painted last year.

While all these tree paintings are useful references for me I think that I need to draw more inspiration from the work of Arthur Rackham who illustrated children's books in the first part of the 20th Century. I want my tree to be twisty and fabulous like his trees. My daughter wants me to include fairies too, but I think I will stick with pears and maybe a few birds. So hopefully I can add more gnarly-ness to my tree. It needs viens and muscles and wrinkles.