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

Oil on Canvas 16″ X 20″

‘Stone Portal To Beyond’

~

One of those dazzling days of early summer.
Sun so bright the shadows intensify accordingly.
Sitting in darkness under a tree deep within the cool dark shade of the forest,
looking up to see sun-kissed leaves reaching for the opening to light-filled sky,
I felt I could travel from the depths through that window and into the light.
This portal felt so strong, so dramatic, I thought stone might convey such substance,
and the painting formed in my mind’s eye:
a stone portal,
suspended in the air of the forest, mirroring the magic of the day,
inviting you to travel through the play of light and dark, 
up & away into the beyond.

~

Humans have always used stones, and stone circles, to mark sacred places, spiritual thresholds.

~

The leaves catching the sunlight are Douglas Maple,
a small tree or shrub, growing to about 7 metres, usually multi-stemmed,
and quite common here in the Interior of British Columbia.
Deer and Elk browse the leaves and twigs; birds and small animals eat the seeds.
Its hardwood branches are strong and pliable.
First Nations people used it extensively to make small items such as snowshoe frames, hoops, bows, tool handles, utensils etc.
The fibres of its inner bark were woven into mats, baskets and rope.

~~~

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

Oil on Canvas 14″X 18″

‘Through’

~

Into the dream…

With a swish and a swirl,
Swim yourself through
On a wish and a whirl,
Wind your way into
The green beyond beckons
Calling you home…

~

The leaves you see are mostly those of Hazelnut ~ a shrub symbolic of family happiness and abundance,
creativity and inspiration, divination and protection.
Considered to hold ancient knowledge, when eaten the nuts will heighten awareness and grant wisdom.
Hazel wands are traditionally used to gain knowledge, wisdom and inspiration; to further the art of communication; and to enhance energy.
Today, scientists tell us these nuts are excellent food for brain function.

The forest is the Inland Temperate Rainforest in the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, the only one of its kind on Earth.
It is a wet belt resulting from weather systems, laden with precipitation from the Pacific Ocean almost 500 miles away,
rising over the coastal mountains and sending down a lot of snow and a fair bit of rain
when they come up against the heights of the Columbia and Rocky Mountain ranges.
It is a lush and diverse ecosystem, boasting a huge variety of species of trees, mosses, ferns and lichens.

~~~

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

Oil on Canvas 14″ X 11″

‘Birch Bursting Forth’

~

This is a magnificent Birch tree, over 7 1/2 feet around at its base,

growing right up close to our cabin where it thrives on the extra

rainwater that funnels down to its roots from the roof.

With my morning coffee, at the beginning of every day,

I sit and gaze into its stately exuberance for life.

In summertime sun, its leafy green abundance

shimmers in the lightest of breezes.

A whole world of birds lives way up in its obliging canopy,

barely visible to us, earthbound below.

Its lower limbs welcome hammocks with open arms, and

its shade provides wonderful cool respite on too-hot days.

I bask in its sheltering presence, and its benevolent beauty inspires me.

It seems to burst forth into the sky realms from its deep nurturing rootedness,

so I thought to paint it emerging from the graceful, egg-like oval shape

symbolic of harmony, protection and completeness,

motherhood and renewal.

~

Paper Birch or White Birch (Betula papyrifera) can reach 100 feet tall;

they are fast growing and relatively short-lived, rarely exceeding 140 years old.

They are common in moist, cool ecosystems.

First Nations people used the bark extensively for baskets, canoes and other containers.

The sap was used as a tonic.

The wood makes top-quality firewood.

Called the ‘Noble Birch,’ the tree is symbolic of inception and renewal,

being the first in the forest to put out new growth in the Spring.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 35 

Oil on Canvas Board 12″ X 9″

‘Mistical February’

~

~ moody brooding dusky gloaming ~

An afternoon in February ~ already turning to dusk in the forest.

The darkness comes much sooner in under the trees.

It’s a magical time

~ the most likely of times to catch a glimpse of an Old One

as colours and shadows all deepen and intensify around you,

on a dark winter’s day like this one,

with the mists rolling down the mountainsides

~ such beauty in these rich brooding purple- and deep green-greys.

They awaken a yearning within me; I know not from where it comes, a longing to be wrapped in these mists and

surrender to the soft, cool mystery they bring.

It is said in Celtic lands that what the Faeries call themselves is

‘The Old Ones,’ or ‘The Old People.’

Mythical beings, magical creatures, elementals, wizards

~ through the veils of shifting mists and in the deepening shadows of a day such as this, when the clouds descend and enshroud the mountainsides,

it’s easy to believe the romance and mystery of the otherworlds.

~

This is the Inland Temperate Rainforest, part of the

Interior Cedar-Hemlock Ecozone.

When mature, the forest is dominated by Western Red Cedar and Western Hemlock. It includes a wide variety of tree species: Douglas Fir, Grand Fir, Larch,

Mountain Hemlock, White Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Engelmann Spruce,

Ponderosa Pine, White Birch, Cottonwood and Trembling Aspen.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 77

Oil on Canvas Board 12″ X 9″

‘Spiralling Cedar Boughs’

~

Walking along,

just up the mountainside from the Cathedral Cedar grove,

on one fine, sparkly blue Summer day,

I happened to glance up to see sunlight catching lacy Cedar boughs

in a glorious ascending spiral pattern,

encircling what felt like a vortex gathering me up and

transporting me into the heavens.

~

These are Western Red Cedars, symbols of rebirth, nobility and sublime loftiness; they are spiritually powerful, since ancient times believed to be capable of carrying one to sacred space.

Spirals have been used since the very beginnings of humankind to symbolize the cyclical nature of life and of time

~ energy unfurling, fertility, recurrence and renewal.

They are emblematic of the Sun and of solar energy or the irrepressible life force, even the origin and unfolding of the Universe ~ endless potential.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 39

Oil on Canvas Board 14″ X 14″

‘WelCome’

~

With my paintings I want to give you a place to go

~ similar to the way we can ‘travel’ when we listen to music ~

I want to give you a place where you can rest your eyes and excite your soul,

open your heart and soothe your nerves.

A view of healing green magic.

If you are unable to spend time in a forest today . . . let me take you there; come along with me.

Come, let’s go for a walk together, in the forest . . .

~

This Inland Temperate Rainforest in the interior of British Columbia, Canada,

is the only one of its kind on Earth, a wet belt resulting from weather systems,

laden with precipitation from the Pacific Ocean almost 500 miles away,

rising over the coastal mountains and bringing down a lot of snow

and a fair bit of rain when they come up against the heights of these

Columbia and Rocky Mountain Ranges.

It is a lush and diverse ecosystem, boasting a huge variety of species of trees, mosses, ferns and lichens.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 5

Oil on Canvas 16″ X 12″

‘Cathedral’

•

This Cedar grove,
~ living pillars reaching straight for the heavens,
dappled light filtered through green and gold like stained glass,
lofty arched boughs
~ open spaciousness filled to brimming with palpable spiritual power
~ sings with silent energy.
Sacred space.
Cathedral.

~

The great Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages were designed and built with the express purpose of uplifting the human spirit; moving us toward enlightenment:
~ positioned on sites of powerful natural earth energies held sacred since the beginnings of time
~ shaped using sacred geometry to imbue the architecture with proportions of divine creation
~ configured in order to produce harmonic resonances of sound and energy that would enhance the life force of worshippers
~ created so that the nature of the interior light would elevate the soul.

 (Modern quantum physicists have found that light behaves both as particles and as waves.  Medieval builders stained the glass in the cathedral windows in such a way that the wave attribute of light would shine through but the matter particles aspect would be stopped.  Today, we don’t know how they did it.)

Much of this knowledge has been lost.

It feels to me though that the forest has this knowing ~ within the architecture of the forest we are naturally uplifted and brought into communion with the divine.

Cedar groves have been described as the dwelling places of the gods.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 29

Oil on Canvas 16″ X 12″

‘Deep Winter Portals’

•

The irresistible invitation to enter,
deeper and deeper into the pristine beauty of the silent, beckoning, way.

It smells of purity, clean and fresh, and cold.

The stillness soaks into my bones, I feel the profound calmness within me,
and it brings joy ~ of being alive in this beautiful world.

Oh my, I love the snow.

~

What I wanted this painting to express is that feeling of being unable to stop yourself from being drawn in,

and the excitement of immersing yourself into a wonderland of winter.

~

This mountainous West Kootenay region of Canada gets a real winter ~ lots of glorious snow ~ mostly between November and March or so,  five feet falling on average (less in the valley bottoms and much more way high up in the heights), with the temperature not usually extremely cold ~ averaging just a few degrees below freezing.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 73

Oil on Canvas 12″ X 9″

‘Wall of Woods’

This wall of trees, marching up and away,
rank upon rank; fir and pine, spruce and larch, hemlock, cedar and aspen;
such a rich and diverse array for contemplation.

From a favourite high perch on the mountainside,
looking across a little valley to this hillside beyond;
I feel I could sit and gaze forever into that forest.

It radiates both peaceful stillness, and the vital energy of life.

I imagine I can hear it breathing.

~

With the wispy ribbon of mistiness winding towards you from the beyond,

I hope to give you a passageway, bringing the forest to you and

revealing the depths and distances traveled by the eye.

~

This Inland Temperate Rainforest in the interior of British Columbia, Canada, is the Earth’s only one of its kind, a wet belt resulting from weather systems, laden with precipitation from the Pacific Ocean almost 500 miles away, rising over the coastal mountains and bringing down a lot of snow and a fair bit of rain when they come up against the heights of the Columbia and Rocky Mountain Ranges. It is a lush and diverse ecosystem, boasting a huge variety of tree species, mosses, ferns and lichens.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 55

Oil on Canvas 16″ X 12″

‘Larch StarBurst’

~

Larch and Fir grow entwined,

and burst forth into the wholeness of a nine-pointed star.

This image stunned me, as it appeared before my eyes one fine day in late October:

a nine-pointed star!
in Larch blazing against and amongst Douglas Fir,

like a signal fire to the open air;

to all who would see,

a message,

a proclamation!

~

Nine ~ the sacred three, times three;

the incorruptible number of completion and eternity,

unity, and the crown of achievement.

•

Larch ~ a tree for protection and rebirth;

It is a singularly beautiful tree,

singular in that it is a conifer that is not evergreen,

– it sheds its needles every Fall in a gorgeous deep golden display.

•

Douglas Fir ~ a tree of hope, fortitude and strength,

clarity, and immortality.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 59

Oil on Canvas 16″ X 12″

‘Grand Depths’

The Grand Fir is truly a beautiful, ‘grand’, majestic tree,
with its great and graceful swaths of boughs
sweeping out of its dark core like wings
reaching for the sun.

This one is a magnificent individual.
It seems to take great quiet pride in its beauty.
The painting shows the tree in June when the tips of its branches are
decorated with bright new yellow/green growth.

The depths from which its branches arise strikes me with awe
every day as I walk by.

It has a mystery about it that captures me.
I feel the pull of its profound deep green/black beauty.
Gazing into it I am filled up.

~

The Grand Fir (Abies grandis or aromatica) can reach heights of 80 metres (260 feet) and live over 300 years.

It is found in low to mid elevations along British Columbia’s southern coast and interior, as well as in the American Pacific Northwest.

Its resin can prevent infection in small cuts and insect bites.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, from Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS, Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 15

Oil on Canvas Board  16″ X 12″

HONEYSUCKLE / HAZEL DANCE

• 

Just as Spring is thinking about becoming Summer, the Honeysuckle swirlingly shows itself off as a herald of warmth to come.

Whirling and flirting, it dances its way round its chosen partner
~ here the Hazelnut, who modestly and supportively leans into the dance.

The Honeysuckle Vine strikes me as a very sensuous plant,
~ entwining itself around another,

~ expressing a delicate yet passionate orange delight for the eye

~ each flower with its tiny exquisite droplet of honey nectar tasting of the gods.

How can we help but smile and even laugh aloud with joy when coming upon one in the forest in Springtime.

~

Honeysuckle (or Woodbine) ~ a vine symbolic of devoted love, prosperity, generosity, psychic powers and intuition. 

Beneficial in the treatment of sore throats and respiratory problems.

•

Hazelnut ~ a shrub symbolic of marriage, abundance, family happiness, creativity and inspiration, divination and protection. 

Considered to hold ancient knowledge, eating the nuts will heighten awareness and grant wisdom. 

Today, scientists tell us the nuts are excellent food for brain function.

~~~

~Barbara Brown, Volume I, SYLVAN REFLECTIONS: Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, Page 9