TREE

Cover: “Winter Roots” watercolor 2011 Gary TuckerBook Design Gary Tucker 2012

Participating Artists Pages

Miriam Adlerstein 4 - 6Jessie Bogese 7 - 9Gretchen Conklin 10 - 12Pam Chamberlain 13 - 15Joan Ditzion 16 - 18Barbara duMoulin 19 - 21Harriet Fell 22 - 24Jeanne Gugino 25 - 27Brenda Jones 28 - 30Ruth Khowais 31 - 33Barry Maloney 34- 37Jane Orner 38 - 40Anne Prager 41- 43Didem Sarikaya 44 - 46Lillya Sitkovskaya 47 - 49Anna Starkova 50 - 52Katherine Sloss 53 - 55Gary Tucker 56 - 58Amy Walba 59 - 60

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Miriam Adlerstein

4

A treetop view

My long narrow white bedroom off the second floor had two dormer windows high up by the ceiling, when I was small.

Lying in bed I would look up and visit the treetops.

In autumn the tree was coveredIn delicate shades of amber, orangeAnd gold leaf.

Winters dark bare branches would reach for the stars. After snowfall the branches where velvet white,or they shone like diamonds covered in ice.

Birdsong on spring morningsHeralded Spring awakeningNew green fluff danced onthe branches like small sparrows.

Suddenly in summer a gown of green leaves created a cloakof cool shade.

“Secret Garden Hidden Door” watercolor 2012

Miriam Adlerstein

5

Miriam Adlerstein

6 “Secret Garden” watercolor 2010

Jessie Bogese

7

Artist Statement I have been painting watercolor for 5 years and as soon as I started I could not stop. It became my inspiration to learn and get better and have more confidence. Watercolor can be unforgiving and it takes practice. I started at Kaji Aso Studio 2 years ago and I love that studio, it inspired me to start at the Art Institute.When I draw or paint I feel things and they stay with me. I would like to thank Gary Tucker, Kate Finnegan and Katie Sloss for giving me inspiration for what I do.

"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth" Pablo Picasso

Jessie Bogese

8 “Cherry Tree Blowing in the Wind” watercolor 2012

Jessie Bogese

9“Weeping Willow on a Sunny Day” watercolor 2012

Gretchen Conklin

10

When I was Young

 When I was young I would climb trees and spend afternoons in one special one that had branches reaching out in different directions forming a comfortable private place to sit and read while surrounded completely by softly rustling leaves. Sometimes the tree would rock a little in a stiff breeze but it was always very peaceful there. It was great in the rain too The leaves formed a protective green umbrella as the drops pattered and dripped down around me.In Maine, after I retired and started painting, I found wonderful pine and spruce trees marching everywhere. I studied them and finally mastered the most successful way to paint them during my 14 years there and when I moved to Boston. Imagine my dismay, not a pine tree in sight!

The most challenging for me here are the wonderful old willows, the gnarled magnolias and the stately ancient elm outside my windows which could tell us the history Commonwealth Avenue from when the road was dirt and horses and carriages prevailed , I have painted it in winter with It’s branches covered with snow, and in the summer, when it blocks all the opposite buildings from view so there is nothing but green leaves outside my window. I’m reminded then of my early experiences and feel that I am happily back in my “tree house“ again!

Gretchen Conklin

11“Dream” charcoal 2012

Gretchen Conklin

12 “Seen many Nor'easter's” watercolor 2010

Pam Chamberlain

13

Artist Statement

Pam Chamberlain has been studying watercolor with Kate Finnegan and Gary Tucker for the past few years. “I try to capture the feeling of a place. Sometimes that means painting quickly, being spontaneous. But my most successful ‘in the moment’ pictures are often the result of a second or third go around with the same subject.” 

“Trees are full of contradictions. They can convey strength and still bend with the wind. The mightiest can have the tiniest seeds. And even though they have to compete with each other for space and food, the forest somehow visually presents a collective whole. Each tree really does have its own character, though, and it's a useful exercise to look at them one at a time.”

Pam Chamberlain

14 “Palm” watercolor 2012

Pam Chamberlain

15“Tree and Sky” watercolor 2012

Joan Ditzion

16

During this long mild winter I found myself visually drawn to trees and the

configuration of each tree, devoid of leaves, bare, linear and manifesting and

expressing its own unique clearly defined structure and form. A cluster of trees,

gently dusted with snow, on the banks of the Charles River grabbed my

attention. They seemed to be choreographed in a dance with limbs outstretched,

open, receptive and embracing the new day and world. My eyes got caught up

with the motion and rhythm of the limbs. I kinesthetically and viscerally internalize

the movement and gestures with my brush stroke. With each stroke I try to

capture the gesture of branches moving through space and their linear energy

and movement in the quiet, stillness of winter. I compose and play with the forms,

surface and texture on the page and wet on wet surprises as paint mingles with

water, as I juxtapose positive and negative space and white paper. My senses

are engaged, being in the moment with an authentic response to the visual world

in conversation with paint, water, brush and paper.

As an aging woman, in second half of life, my connection with trees has

deepened. I am awed by their longevity; most predate me and will outlive me.

They almost seem immortal. And each unique tree and cluster of trees provides

continuity of form in the landscape thru the changing seasons. We live in an

increasingly , digitized, screen based, intangible ,electronic, high tech world of

quick, at times superficial, connectivity and rapid, fleeting change. For me,

capturing and experiencing the essence of trees and being engaged with them

visually with paint provides me with an essential counterpoint. This meditative,

creative process opens my heart to the tangible natural world, living in the

moment and to the beauty of the season.

Joan Ditzion

17“Gesturing Branches 1” watercolor 2012

Joan Ditzion

18 “Gesturing Branches II” watercolor 2012

Barbara duMoulin

19

The Eloquence of Trees

Through the seasons we travel “hand in hand” with our trees--a parallel existence--whether to pick up falling leaves each autumn or to play hide and seek behind the protection of a sturdy tree trunk, we live our lives accompanied by these quiet friends.

They speak to us in whispers and in symbols telling us of weather and the passage of time. They provide an eloquent backdrop for the events of life-providing shade from the sun, a romantic place for a picnic, a spot to reflect, and homes for the birds and our other friends of nature -- but perhaps most poignantly serving as a poetic clock marking time in our own lives.

Barbara duMoulin

20 “Hide and Seek” watercolor 2012

Barbara duMoulin

21“Once Upon a Time” watercolor 2012

Harriet Fell

22

Friskeeta As a science project, all fourth grade students in our local school had to do a yearlong study of a single tree. They were to observe the tree once a week and write down their observations.

My daughter, Tova, picked a maple tree at the corner of our yard. Each week, she sat near the tree and dutifully wrote long passages in her notebook. After four weeks, I read what she had written so far. It did not look much like a science project. She had named her tree “Friskeeta” and the lengthy passages she had written were about how Friskeeta felt. She wrote about how Friskeeta liked these weekly visits, how she had been lonely and missed the seedlings she had grown up with at the nursery. She wrote about how Friskeeta liked visits from birds and squirrels and even insects and how she spent many hours watching cars go by. Friskeeta was scared at night and did not like the eerie sounds in the darkness.

I told her that this was not what she was supposed to be doing and that from now on she had to write scientific observations. I am very sorry I did that. Her yearlong tale of Friskeeta’s feelings would probably have been a match for Shel Siverstein’s “The Giving Tree.”

Years later, my neighbor decided to sell his property. He had a survey done and we learned that Friskeeta was actually on his land. He had plans drawn up to build a pair of townhouses on the plot and it was first to get stripped clean of plant-life. His plans needed several variances and I had to agree to them before the building could proceed. I signed on the condition that Friskeeta be left alone. And so, though Tova has moved to Los Angeles, she still comes to visit Friskeeta - and me.

Harriet Fell

23“Winter Bones” watercolor 2010

Harriet Fell

24 “Burnt out Manhattan Pier” watercolor 2011

Jeanne Gugino

25

Tree

People need to recognize how generous trees are! They share a wide variety of blossoms and fruits to nourish our body and spirit.Their sap turns into sweetness to our delight.Their leaves provide shade.They offer wood for our shelter and warmth.Limbs hold children who climb and swing from them.Creatures live in them.The Druids worshipped them.Trees live many years and their roots hold our earth together.

Jeanne Gugino

26 “The Yellow Tree” pastel 2012

Jeanne Gugino

27“The Bicycle Path” watercolor 2012

Brenda Jones

28

Tree

Trees provide the structure for our landscapes. They are the measuring sticks by

which we judge the height of our mountains and the length of our roads.

Trees hold up the sky and announce the seasons of the year. They tell us how to

dress our human subjects and how to color our surroundings.

Trees teach us that, sometimes being strong means bending with the storm and

survival may more often depend on being the smartest not the biggest.

Trees, from bonsai to red woods, have watched our history unfold. They have

provided raw materials to make our homes and to keep us warm.

Trees provide shade and inspire awe with their shapes and color. They provide

the oxygen we breathe. And when you reach for your juice in the morning,

THANK A TREE.

Brenda Jones

29“Wind Shaped Cyprus” watercolor 2010

Brenda Jones

30 “Bamboo in Fog” watercolor 2012

Ruth Khowais

31

Tree

The tree teems with life.Squirrel snuggled in an aerial nest.A woodpecker taps, warblers serenade, beetles scurrySap oozes, offering cool drink to fledgling sapsuckersAn owl stares wide eyed from its leafy refuge.Haven, refuge, dwelling.The tree teems with life.

Ruth Khowais

32 “Resting Raccoon” watercolor 2011

Ruth Khowais

33“We give a hoot” watercolor 2012

Barry Maloney

34

Tree and Memory

It was many months ago, over breakfast, that Gary first mentioned the possibility

of an art exhibition using Tree as its subject. Immediately, it struck me what a

strong and universal topic this would be, how it stirred my interest and

imagination, and unleashed a well-spring of memory. It occurred to me how so

many of my paintings have a tree in them, whether as main subject or as

background imagery. How at times they are used metaphorically to express some

concept or feeling, and at other times are a literal subject of the painting. I began

to think about this type of being – these trees – and how steadfastly they stand

among us in our lives, whether as the everyday backdrop to our world, or as our

silent judges or overlords, or as our fellow carbon-based co-creatures. In this

great expanding universe of cold empty space, how many other living beings are

there really? How much we should treasure them, these woody perennial plants

with a single elongated main stem and a plethora of branches atop – drinking

their water, grasping down into the soil, reaching up toward the sun, silently

being.

Trees take up a large part of the memories of my life. Let me describe just a few

events.…the peach tree in my childhood backyard that I climbed with my brother

and sisters, and its yearly yield of fruit that we ate to excess, and finally, when it

sickened and was cut down and a large snake-like creature shot out from its base

and fled away into a neighbor’s yard’s undergrowth and beyond.

…the fall afternoon when our tough Irish nun realized even she couldn’t control

her unruly class anymore, and she took us all out for a long walk around the

streets of Chester, Pennsylvania. I still remember the feel of that day, the stirring

Barry Maloney

35

momentous elation of it – the colored leaves, the smell of them mouldering and

breaking down, the winding line of my fellow students marching along before

and behind me, all of us looking up at the trees and the moody sky and down at

the leaf covered ground. Even at that tender age I realized that this was a

profound moment in my life.

…the woods near my home where the neighborhood kids would go to get away

from adult oversight. The thick overgrowth of trees blocking forward motion in

some directions, and being more permissive in others, allowing for pathways and

egress. The eerie tree everyone always pointed out where Jimmy Leary had

committed suicide and how a couple of the older teens, walking in the woods

early one morning had found him hanging in a tree and cut him down. The sturdy

tree we built a fort high up in, and how one day, as too many of us were in it and

I walked across the floor to an open spot to sit down, the entire floor just fell out

from under me, and how we all fell – slow motion, down and down – and landing

with a crash, sat there for silent moments looking at the pointed broken wood

and nails everywhere around us, until we realized that not a one of us was hurt,

or even scratched, and the sudden mad mirth that swept over us all.

…the first trees I painted, the pine trees I walked among, the bright shining

blossoms of spring, sweltering green of summer, melodious colors of fall, and

the bare melancholy limbs of winter. These trees, they are everywhere in my

memory, in every place I’ve lived, visited or traveled too. Trees I’ve laid down

under, trees I’ve sadly cut down, trees I’ve planted and husbanded and helped

to grow. These trees, these companions of my life, how unimaginable would this

world be without them. Without the memory of them, would we even recognize

ourselves?

Barry Maloney

36 “Mortality” acrylic on canvas 1992

Barry Maloney

37“Fait Accompli” acrylic on canvas 2012

Jane Orner

38

TanglewoodTree

When I became liberated from my office job, I was very eager to start painting watercolors — those sweeping clouds, dapple-lit landscapes and the ever-changing light and movements of water. In the end though, it was the trees that captivated me.

There was a tree on the Tanglewood lawns that drew my eye right up to the sky with it's stately height and subtle color and textured patterns. By contrast, an uncultivated pasture harbored a troubled old tree. Scarred by fire, the sinuous lines of the remaining branches seemed pulsing with life. On a winter afternoon, columns of trees cast soldier-like shadow patterns across late afternoon winter-blue landscapes.

Trees will always lure me with their beauty, history and mystery.

Jane Orner

39“Towering Birch” watercolor 2011

Jane Orner

40 “Winter Shadow Play” watercolor 2012

Anne Prager

41

Tree

"Newborn blossoms spring from branches their innocence blown away.  They fall on the unknown.  Roots thrive seeking safety and wisdom."

Anne Prager

42 “Cherry Blossoms” watercolor 2012

Anne Prager

43“The Foot of the Tree” watercolor 2012

Didem Sarikaya

44

Artist’s Statement

Boston’s trees are beautiful, especially in the fall. Part of enjoying the fall season is watching Boston’s extensive foliage from September to November, where the trees change color gradually. Observing the leaves change color made me think of what ‘change’ means. By the end of November, the leaves fall so that new buds can emerge when warmth returns. We welcome the change of color from green to yellow, orange, red, and anything in between.

But do we welcome such changes when we, as individual human beings, are changing within ourselves? These paintings were dedicated to celebrating and understanding what change means—with the hope that change is something that leads to a fresh and healthy new bud when the warmth returns.

Didem Sarikaya

45“The Fall III” watercolor 2010

Didem Sarikaya

46 “The Fall IV” watercolor 2011

Lillya Sitkovskaya

47

The Birches

This warm summer day, the sun drops the light through the hanging air to coverthe earth and alights all around: the roofs of high rocket buildings, the trees, bushes, grass.

Two birches speak to each other in silence.

When the wind grows stronger, the birches spread their branches closer to each other...to stand together, like two people move shoulder to shoulder to help each other at the time of disaster.

Lillya Sitkovskaya

48 “Together” watercolor 2012

Lillya Sitkovskaya

49“Tree and Lantern” watercolor 2012

Katie Sloss

50

Tree Tree Oh Tree !

Tree tree oh tree! It was a favorite expression of joy when our children were young.  We had just bought an old house with a very small cherry tree in the middle of the back yard. It seemed a sure sign of good years to come. We gathered next to it for our family portrait. Our children grew up sitting in it, hanging in its branches, playing tag under and around it.      Years passed. and the tree grew bigger and bigger and became wildly overgrown. In winter it caught the snow in its hundreds of branches and everything gleamed white and rainbowed in the afternoon sun. When it blossomed in spring, it was like one enormous sweet smelling bouquet that filled the whole backyard. We would often step outside at midnight just to experience the scent-filled air. It became a haven for a variety of local birds, and we loved watching their comings and goings. We hung Japanese lanterns from its branches and lit them on summer nights while we watched for fireflies. 

When our family dog Blossom passed away, she spent her last morning resting in the dewy spring grass and moss that grew under the tree. The dawn light touched the blossoms with pink and yellow, and a small bird flew down out of the tree and hopped in a circle around her.  We later dug a hole in between the roots of the tree where her ashes now rest. As a memorial, we placed a nice wooden bench under the tree, which I always thought of as hers.

Under a tree, we can sit, reflect, and dream.  Looking up through the branches we can muse on the sky, sun, moon and stars.  We are a tiny element of existence, and we can think on it under a tree. It is a wonderful place to be.  

Tree tree, oh tree!

Katie Sloss

51“Blooming Crabapple” acrylic on canvas 2012

Katie Sloss

52 “Bare Crabapple” conte on paper 2010

Anna Starkova

53

Trees are a source of inspirational power

Early on in my life I wasn’t able to fully observe the full beauty of a tree because of my vision limitations. When my eyesight improved; I was able to look up top and discover all the natural magnificence. I was fascinated by all the tiny branches and all the fine details the leaves on the trees have. They are beautiful in their peace. I would visit parks and sit on benches and marvel at the trees dancing in the wind. I often wondered what the story of the trees would be to us if they had tongues to tell it or we have ears fine enough to understand. It felt like I discovered another universe of grace and splendor!

A tree can be associated with a partner, a mentor, and a footprint of life. In the shadow of a tree you can hide from the scorching sun, under leafage you can hide from the rain and it carries the signs of your love on its rind. The tree represents human life and the way it grows and develops depicts our decision making and our every day life changing moments. Trees are a never-ending source of inspiration for your mind, no matter if you an artist, a philosopher, or a gardener…

Anna Starkova

54 “Seasons” oil 2010

Anna Starkova

55“Tree of Light” watercolor 2012

Gary Tucker

56

Artist Statement

This piece “In Memory of Shade” was done in pen and ink on location in the backyard of Dedham artist Barry Maloney. The drawing was done in one sitting and finished in about 45 minutes. The title refers to the large Elm behind the Japanese Maple in the foreground. The Elm is no longer there, as it fell during the winter of 2011 which we will all remember for many years to come.

“The Elder” was completed after a visit to Mount Charleston outside of Las

Vegas Nevada. “The Elder” is actually named the “Raintree” and it is a

bristlecone pine among a small stand of similar tree. These trees average 3500

years in age. “Raintree” is more than 4000 years old. it is quite humbling to stand

next to a living creature that has been growing since before the pyramids were

built. I sat for several hours drawing and trying to fathom the length of their lives.

I could not even begin.Then there came a very distinct sound when the wind

passed through the pine forrest. It was a lonely sound - like a shakahatchi

trembling and surging. These trees are shaped by the the wind and they thrive in

harsh conditions at high altitudes. I remembered that same sound from childhood

sitting high in a pine tree watching my friends look for me. I could not be found

and I sat for hours in that pine - swaying in the lonely sound, happy in my

solitude.

Gary Tucker

57 “In Memory of Shade” pen on paper 2011

Gary Tucker

58“The Elder” pen on paper 2012

Amy Walba

59

Artist Statement

Amy Walba is a watercolor artist/designer living in the Boston area. She has been influenced by Gary Tucker, an accomplished Boston area artist/teacher. Gary opened Amy’s eye to watercolor, music, philosophy, and Japanese culture.

A love of color, beauty, nature, and light are in part inspired by the beauty she has seen spending summers on Martha’s Vineyard as well as Kennebunkport Maine.

She feels that art both expresses and evokes emotion, engaging one to notice the beauty in everyday events; art compels the viewer.

Passion is a watercolor nature scene completed in one sitting at the start of spring, 2012. The work is symbolic of new beginnings and was painted while looking out the window of her Boston home.

Amy Walba

60“The Edge” watercolor 2012

Amy Walba

61 “Passion II” watercolor 2012

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“Tree”Published 2012

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