The Heart of An Oak Tree
Come sit with me beneath the mighty oak tree.
We had a huge old oak tree on our property growing up. It was at the top of the hill, near the fence line. When I walked the hills, I saved my visit with it till last, where I would sit and savor the stillness of the day. The upheaval of the previous year has led me to seek out the company of just such a tree.
A poem by Walt Whitman sums it up best:
I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing
BY WALT WHITMAN
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wonder’d how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it makes me think of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not.
The link provided below takes you to the Walt Whitman archive where you can see the manuscript in his own handwriting https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/liveoak.html
The previous painting took so much time and detail that I decided I wanted to paint something light and breezy for a change. I followed Emily Olsen's advice on painting a simple oak tree. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmcsSNRPYjXoh8EwmhXB7A/videos
Reference photo from Deposit Photos
A simple painting started with a 'barely there' sketch
Now for that walk in the woods...
Helen
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