Finished Painting : The Healing Tree

Hi there.

I'd like to share my latest mixed media painting, "The Healing Tree", with you. It's my new favorite.  I've been working on this on and off for the last 6-7 months... not straight through (thank goodness).  It's driven me crazy and caused many labor pains to be born into this world, but it was well worth it.  

It had quite an interesting start...as it didn't start off as a tree at all... but a peacock feather!  This was the first stage below.

A nice start I thought... loose and free, but then something went horribly wrong and it evolved to this below.  I had something in mind, but now I can't remember what.  OK, it's not THAT bad really, and I really like the depth and texture that was added by the torn papers and stamping...you can click on the photo to see it better.

So after that I put it aside and let it stew for a bit.

Then one day I suddenly wanted to paint a tree.  NOW!  I looked around, saw this canvas and thought "Nope.  Not feather..... TREE."  (what am I, a caveman?  no sentence.  just word)  Umm...yeah...

So I painted over the whole thing, drew a tree with orange water-color crayon, grabbed some aqua paint and a spiral suddenly appeared.  Hmm... ok... I like it.

Then I started on the tree and tore some vintage book pages into leaf shapes.  I created even more leaves with cream paint and others with green.

Then there was a lot more painting, glazing, and layering to create more depth, vitality, and luminosity.  I also used a few water-color crayons to give it some "pop" and bring out some details.  Don't forget to use a spray sealer after using these crayons, or it'll easily wash away.

One of the final details was adding the rain.

Sometimes when I create a painting, it's just to have fun and make something pretty.  Other times I have a deeper meaning in mind (and heart) before starting.  And sometimes it starts as the first one, but then evolves to become something much more significant.  This is definitely the last one.  It started becoming more meaningful when I painted the spiral and just kept growing from there.  It's not something I can completely explain or even understand, but as I was working on it, I could feel it.  I could feel that this painting is about more than just a simple tree, that there is a deeper, spiritual meaning to it.  The title "The Healing Tree" came to me when it was almost finished.  It is obviously a huge part of it the message, but there's more to it than that.

It's in the details...

 The spiral.
The branches.
The white leaves.
The rain.
The falling leaf.
The tree itself.
Maybe even the book pages.

The meaning isn't always revealed to me as I'm working on it.  At times it can take a while after I've finished it for it to come.   I've yet to completely grasp this one.  I've had some whispers, but not the whole message.

Whatever it's full meaning is, it speaks to me.  I'm going to hang on to this one.