TREE
Cover: “Winter Roots” watercolor 2011 Gary Tucker
Book Design Gary Tucker 2012
Participating Artists
Miriam Adlerstein
Gretchen Conklin
Jessie Bogese
Pages
4-6
7-9
10 - 12
Pam Chamberlain
13 - 15
Barbara duMoulin
19 - 21
Joan Ditzion
Harriet Fell
Brenda Jones
28 - 30
Barry Maloney 34- 37
Anne Prager
41- 43
Jeanne Gugino Ruth Khowais
Jane Orner
Didem Sarikaya 16 - 18
22 - 24
25 - 27
31 - 33
38 - 40
44 - 46
Lillya Sitkovskaya
47 - 49
Anna Starkova 50 - 52
Gary Tucker
56 - 58
Katherine Sloss Amy Walba
53 - 55
59 - 60
3
Miriam Adlerstein
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 covered
In delicate shades of amber, orange
And 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 mornings
Heralded Spring awakening
New green fluff danced on
the branches like small sparrows.
Suddenly in summer a gown of
green leaves created a cloak
of cool shade.
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Miriam Adlerstein
“Secret Garden Hidden Door” watercolor 2012
5
Miriam Adlerstein
6
“Secret Garden” watercolor 2010
Jessie Bogese
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
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Jessie Bogese
8
“Cherry Tree Blowing in the Wind” watercolor 2012
Jessie Bogese
“Weeping Willow on a Sunny Day” watercolor 2012
9
Gretchen Conklin
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!
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Gretchen Conklin
“Dream” charcoal 2012
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Gretchen Conklin
12
“Seen many Nor'easter's” watercolor 2010
Pam Chamberlain
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.”
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Pam Chamberlain
14
“Palm” watercolor 2012
Pam Chamberlain
“Tree and Sky” watercolor 2012
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Joan Ditzion
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.
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Joan Ditzion
“Gesturing Branches 1” watercolor 2012
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Joan Ditzion
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“Gesturing Branches II” watercolor 2012
Barbara duMoulin
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 lifeproviding 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.
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Barbara duMoulin
20
“Hide and Seek” watercolor 2012
Barbara duMoulin
“Once Upon a Time” watercolor 2012
21
Harriet Fell
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.
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Harriet Fell
“Winter Bones” watercolor 2010
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Harriet Fell
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“Burnt out Manhattan Pier” watercolor 2011
Jeanne Gugino
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.
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Jeanne Gugino
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“The Yellow Tree” pastel 2012
Jeanne Gugino
“The Bicycle Path” watercolor 2012
27
Brenda Jones
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.
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Brenda Jones
“Wind Shaped Cyprus” watercolor 2010
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Brenda Jones
30
“Bamboo in Fog” watercolor 2012
Ruth Khowais
Tree
The tree teems with life.
Squirrel snuggled in an aerial nest.
A woodpecker taps, warblers serenade, beetles scurry
Sap oozes, offering cool drink to fledgling sapsuckers
An owl stares wide eyed from its leafy refuge.
Haven, refuge, dwelling.
The tree teems with life.
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Ruth Khowais
32
“Resting Raccoon” watercolor 2011
Ruth Khowais
“We give a hoot” watercolor 2012
33
Barry Maloney
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
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streets of Chester, Pennsylvania. I still remember the feel of that day, the stirring
Barry Maloney
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?
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Barry Maloney
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“Mortality” acrylic on canvas 1992
Barry Maloney
“Fait Accompli” acrylic on canvas 2012
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Jane Orner
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 everchanging 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 winterblue landscapes.
Trees will always lure me with their beauty, history and mystery.
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Jane Orner
“Towering Birch” watercolor 2011
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Jane Orner
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“Winter Shadow Play” watercolor 2012
Anne Prager
Tree
"Newborn blossoms spring from branches their
innocence blown away. They fall on the unknown. Roots thrive seeking safety and wisdom."
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Anne Prager
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“Cherry Blossoms” watercolor 2012
Anne Prager
“The Foot of the Tree” watercolor 2012
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Didem Sarikaya
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.
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Didem Sarikaya
“The Fall III” watercolor 2010
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Didem Sarikaya
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“The Fall IV” watercolor 2011
Lillya Sitkovskaya
The Birches
This warm summer day, the sun drops the light through the hanging air to cover
the 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.
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Lillya Sitkovskaya
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“Together” watercolor 2012
Lillya Sitkovskaya
“Tree and Lantern” watercolor 2012
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Katie Sloss
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!
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Katie Sloss
“Blooming Crabapple” acrylic on canvas 2012
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Katie Sloss
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“Bare Crabapple” conte on paper 2010
Anna Starkova
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…
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Anna Starkova
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“Seasons” oil 2010
Anna Starkova
“Tree of Light” watercolor 2012
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Gary Tucker
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.
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Gary Tucker
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“In Memory of Shade” pen on paper 2011
Gary Tucker
“The Elder” pen on paper 2012
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Amy Walba
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.
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Amy Walba
“The Edge” watercolor 2012
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Amy Walba
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“Passion II” watercolor 2012
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“Tree”
Published 2012
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