Cosmic Tree: Painting #5

Cosmic Tree 18" x 24"

The inspiration for Cosmic Tree came from a leaf my cat brought me. "Whaaat, your cat brought you a what?" I know, sounds crazy, but the deal is I have a cat named Mr. Chubbs whose main job in life is to bring us (my husband and me) leaves. From the time Chubs was a year old he would find a leaf in the yard and bring it back to the house yowling the whole way to announce his latest acquisition. He collects a variety of leaves from all over the acre we live on. Today I was finally able to get a picture of him with the leaf in his mouth. Sorry, it's a little blurry but I've been trying to get a picture forever. He usually drops the leaf as soon as he sees me but today I had my phone ready and snuck out, aimed and snapped. It's not a great shot but it'll do. Today's leaf was from an avocado tree. The leaf that inspired my painting was a kukui nut tree leaf.

On the painting, I outlined the leaf shapes on the right and then filled in the background area with the terra-cotta-orangish color, some chartreuse and white. I used my finger to lay on the paint and blend and smear the colors. The long thin shape next to that felt like a tree trunk to me but seemed a little plain. I was inspired to put in little doodle shapes--triangles, lines, dots and suns. I have been a avid doodler since I was a little kid so this spoke to me loud and clear.

The more the painting progressed, the more doodley things happened. I love how free I feel when I am doing these small details. They are not in all my paintings but I feel they are definitely a part of my developing painting style. Not sure how it all fits together but I like these details, the way I am inspired to paint them, and how they look.

I was basically done with the outside areas but the middle was a black hole. Then I saw the face and realized it was a cosmic tree spirit. She is holding a basket of stars and a galaxy, maybe the Milky Way. (BTW, she is a doorway to the Universe. Trees are access points to enter her domain.) Most of her face was already on the canvas, and I just added the eye and the mouth. Once I had her face, her body and her cloak of the universe fell into place. The whole vibe feels very southwest Native American. I am not sure where that came from as I don't really have any connections there. However I received it, I appreciate whoever sent it. It is my favorite painting so far!