Trees

While I was living in California.My studio was located in the picturesque and authentic "Old West" town of Angels Camp. Our deck was situated only meters above Angels Creek, where more than 4000 men were prospecting daily for gold during the height of the 1849 gold fever.Still today you can see men and women walking in dusty cowboy boots and wearing beat up cowboy hats - the authentic look of a hard day's work.My studio's location in untouched nature and a pristine landscape offered endless plein air subjects, on which I worked over those three short years. From this vantage point I painted gouaches and most of the "trees-focused landscapes!. In the series of gouaches I try to follow and catch colors in their own movement during the changes in daylight. In some of these paintings the subject appears more natural in appearance: you can see and recognized that it is a chestnut or maple tree, a lilac tree or..... 

However, in some paintings I tried to simplify the subject by painting them in geometric shapes. You can see this mostly in my favorite subject of Buckeye trees, where I painted close to a visual border. 

Now, when I look at the paintings, I myself am reminded of the "cosmic" patterns on textiles and fabrics from the 1950s, '60s and the psychedelic '70s with typical bold colors and patterns.While living in true golden California I never had success panning for gold, but hopefully I was able to capture in my paintings the colors of California's Gold Rush country. Whether in my cityscapes or landscapes, I must admit that the golden rays of California sunlight will always remain elusive.