Forest Stillness Painting

My passion for art has been a part of me ever since I can remember. I was drawing and painting at quite a young age and when I was old enough, I started art classes at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. At that time Arthur Lismer was the director of the school.I have lived in the mountains and in the forest. I feel at home amongst the trees. I love the shadowy interplay of the branches and leaves; the shapes and forms created by trunks and limbs. And so, it is natural for me to paint trees in their various textures and spaces. The trees in this series are painted with the branches and/or foliage above ground and the roots below or just above ground. I like to depict the roots the way they hang on to the rocks of the mountains or twist above the soil. These are symbolic of the roots by which we are all connected to our past and to each other. My paintings make reference to the cycle of birth, death and re-birth in life; to the connections between the spiritual and the earthly, the ephemeral quality of our lives and the fragility of our environment.