North American Beech

We’re having a good autumn in Montreal. Lots of sunny days and spectacular colours in the trees around here. When I was out for a walk with Alice earlier this week, I took a close-up photo of a North American Beech tree in full sun. The leaves were shockingly vivid — bright yellow/green in some places and fading orange in others.

I painted this without a pencil drawing. I just grabbed a new sable brush I received from Rosemary & Co and started painting leaf shapes in yellow/green and rust. I was hoping to capture the juxtaposition of those two main colours set against a dark background. If you follow my newsletter “The Wheelbarrow”, I’ll be posting the step-by-step photos and a description of the process there. If you’re not a subscriber but want to be, here’s a link.