Oil on canvas, 24″ x 12″

‘Gateway’

Let me set the scene for you:

It was a winter wonderland of a world;

with fresh snow falling daily

bringing down that deep silence of deep snow at the dead of winter,

when the stillness finally reaches my bones and settles me.

And it was here that two enchantments happened,

to bring about this painting.

The first was a visit from White Rabbit.

One night when the moon was full and the forecast was for yet more snow,

I was up late savouring the depths of the winter night,

snug in our cabin with the woodstove stoked keeping us warm.

On my way to bed I opened our front door onto the night,

to see if the snow had begun to fall.

And there, motionless in the middle of the path,

was a pure white Snowshoe Hare,

in the pure white snow, in the moonlit world,

with fresh snow drifting gently down.

I was spellbound.

The next morning, I too went out snowshoeing,

into the pure white cold silent wonder-wrapt forest.

The day was heavily overcast, the snow still wafting softly,

the forest deep in its winter slumber.

Venturing off the path, I wandered deeper into the woods,

seeking further immersion in the wild.

I came to a place, under towering snow-laden Fir and Hemlock,

that invited me to stop and sit a spell.

Bundled up and warm, I snuggled into a snowy embankment,

and closed my eyes, better to soak up the stillness. I even drifted off…

upon opening them, and seeing with fresh eyes the profound beauty surrounding me,

I gazed over to my left to behold the second enchantment, this Gothic Gateway.

Beckoning. Enticing. Summoning. Thrilling.

And by magic the vision of the painting came to me.

…I remembered what the dormouse said…

call Alice…

Dare to enter

~~~~~

This is the Inland Temperate Rainforest, Slocan Valley, SE British Columbia, Canada

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from upcoming Volume II, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest 

 Oil on Canvas 12″ X 24″

‘A Wide Open Winter Wander’

~~

This is the forest floor beneath the Cedar ‘Cathedral’ grove in my forest,
here in its deep winter slumber.

Its open nature draws me in; inviting freedom of movement and expansion of spirit.

Sense the clear columns rising high above.
Pristine snow adds to the spacious purity.

Follow the easy meandering path of the ribbon;
feel free to wander through this expansive open forest at your whim.

~~

The trees are Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata), growing to 130 feet and living to 1,000 years.
Cedars symbolize purity, cleanliness, sublime and noble loftiness, and immortality.
They are portals to sacred realms, dwelling places of the gods.

There are also a few White, or Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) here,
who can grow to 100 feet tall but seldom live past 140 years, being relatively fast-growing and short-lived.

Also considered a noble tree, the Birch is symbolic of new life, renewal and rebirth.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from upcoming Volume II, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest 

Oil on Canvas 18″ X 14″

‘Cedar Intimacy’

~

This image captivated me in the forest.
First, up close and personal,
I fell in love with the pretty surface patterns that
those intense green twinkling cedar frond fingers make
as they reach for the sun at the edge of a clearing on the mountainside.
Playful with its offering of beauty, she revels in her aliveness.
Then …I am invited to travel deeper;
to delve into the dark forest beyond the surface,
and there to be welcomed into the inner sanctum depths with, again,
a twinkle of sunshine.

~

And, as happens so often in my work, the oval comes to me,
with its soft feminine welcoming geometry
to help me to convey the feeling inherent in this offering. 

~

These are Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)
here in the Inland Temperate Rainforest.
They grow to 130 feet tall and can live for 1,000 years.

Cedar helps us to heal emotional hurts;
and it is symbolic of the pure, the sublime and the sacred.

~

~Barbara Brown, from upcoming Volume II, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest 

Oil on Canvas 18″ X 14″

‘Cottonwood Spray’

~

This spray of Cottonwood sparkles out
from the wall of conifers it nestles within.
Flaring like a burst of fireworks.
Feel the joyful energy radiating outward, demanding our attention,
calling out to us to notice it,
to appreciate its beauty as it dances in the breeze
…“Look at me!”

This is a Black Cottonwood (Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa)
which grows to 130 feet tall but rarely reaches 200 years old.
It is the fastest growing tree in this Inland Temperate Rainforest.

Its seeds produce cottony fluff which First Nations people used for bedding.
In the Spring its red buds are thick with sticky resin called ‘Balm of Gilead’
which gives off a heavenly scent and makes a wonderful healing salve for the skin.

Its wood makes high grade pulp for quality paper.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from upcoming Volume II, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest 

Oil on Canvas 20″ X 30″

‘Dancing Yew Sisters’

~

This image had been simmering away in the back of my mind for years. Every day I walk by these two young Yew trees growing so gracefully (for often-so-straggly Yews!) down by the creek. They are about the same age and I feel sister energy between them. I imagine them sharing a long slow dance throughout the span of their long lives together straddling this little creek in the forest, and I’ve always envisioned an ethereal infinity figure-8 symbol swirling between them, enfolding them, and informing their essence and their relationship.

~

Looking deeper into Yew tree lore I find my instincts to be unerring, as Yew is known to be the Tree of Eternity. Remarkably, the Yew is singular in its ability to grow forever, endlessly renewing itself. It is one of the oldest known tree species on Earth, growing here virtually unchanged for at least 250 million years. It can change its sex as it needs to to propagate itself, or it can be both female and male at the same time. It has the uncanny ability to grow new shoots from seemingly dead branches, and drooping branches can root as they touch the ground. The word ‘Yew’ means ‘eternity’ or ‘to be touched by eternity’ or even, in ancient Gaelic, simply ‘God’.
Sacred to humans since the beginning of time, ancient Yews are to be found in nearly every churchyard in NW Europe and the British Isles—that is if the church was founded on a pre-existing pagan holy site, as so many were. Long before Christianity, the Yews were present and revered at all the old sacred sites where people gathered to worship. 

~

It’s the Western Yew (Taxus brevifolia) that grows in the forest here. It’s a conifer but instead of cones it produces red berry-like fruit. The bark is a smooth, deep rose-red with dark purple scales.
All parts of the tree are poisonous except for the flesh of the berries; although it is said that it was taken in ancient times for shamanic journeying. Today the potent breast cancer-fighting drug Taxol is derived from its bark.

The wood is extraordinarily dense, and indigenous peoples used it for tools, especially bows and staffs. I found two relatively straight fallen branches suitable for my walking sticks.

They are ancient ancestral wisdom keepers.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from upcoming Volume II, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest

Oil on Canvas Board 18″ X 14″

‘Fir, Soft and Thick’

~

The healing of that greenness is palpable.
You can rest there within the depths of the green, and return refreshed.

Nuzzle into the lush verdancy.

~

The geometry of the oval brings to mind the feminine attributes of
softness and nurturing;
motherhood, protection and renewal.

Interior Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca)
can grow to 130 feet tall and live up to 400 years.
There is, as well, the Coastal Variety of Douglas-fir which is much longer-lived and larger.

First Nations peoples used the tree extensively:
ate the seeds, drank tea from new shoots and needles,
chewed the dry sap for treating colds, and
used the soft boughs for bedding.

Today it is one of the most sought-after woods for lumber.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from upcoming Volume II, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest

Oil on Canvas Board 20″ X 16″

‘Grand Sweeping Spiral’

~

A vital part of my daily practice of walking in the forest is stopping,
and sitting in stillness for a spell.
I will usually close my eyes, open my other senses, and meditate for awhile.
Then, when I come out of the meditation, upon opening my eyes,
the world around me appears brand new, with a new beauty and clarity.
It’s me, my spirit, that has been cleansed and renewed,
giving the forest surrounding me a fresh sparkle through my eyes.
And often it is at this moment that I will notice a particularly beautiful sight
that calls out to be seen by others as well…
This painting arose from one of these occasions.
I opened my eyes to be struck by the grand sweeping boughs
of this Grand Fir as they spiral through time and space
~ up & up and around & around in a long slow graceful swirling dance
as the tree winds its way through the years of its lifetime.

~

Tree Time

I recently read ‘The Overstory’ by Richard Powers,
a remarkable novel, about trees, that blew my mind wide open over and over again.
As the blurb on the back cover says: “There is a world alongside ours
–vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us.
…the world of trees.”
It got me thinking about tree time.
We have a longing to communicate with the trees, and we have so much in common with them,
–both living, growing, procreating, dying; needing nourishment and a supportive environment,
and both upright vertical beings connecting Earth with Sky
– with the difference being largely in the respective timespans of our lives;
“they operate on a different scale of time”, their stories are told too slowly for us to hear.
“The chemistry of their roots and the perfumes their leaves pump out change when we’re near.
…When you feel good after a walk in the woods, it may be that certain species are bribing you.
So many wonder drugs have come from trees, and we haven’t yet scratched the surface of the offerings.
Trees have long been trying to reach us.
But they speak on frequencies too low for people to hear.” (my underscore);
and “…down in cool riparian corridors smelling of silt and decaying needles,
redwoods work a plan that will take a thousand years to realize.”

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from upcoming Volume II, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest