Big Tree Art by Hasui Kawase

 

Moon at Megome 
from the series Twenty Views of Tokyo, 1919-1921

Nikkō Kaidō, 1930.

"Emily Carr: Deep Forest" At Vancouver Art Gallery

A Rushing Sea of Undergrowth, Emily Carr, 1932-35.

This weekend is a celebration of Emily Carr's 142nd birthday. The local artist was born in Victoria on December 13th, 1871.

Emily Carr was a friend of Vancouver Island's forests. Throughout her life she sought to plumb their mossy green depths to hopefully some day say she really knew this magnificent ecosystem.

Her paintings document her quest to learn as much from the Victoria area's big trees as she could, then depict that in her images.

“This perhaps is the way to find that thing I long for: go into the woods alone and look at the earth crowded in growth, new and old bursting from their strong roots hidden in the silent, live ground, each seed according to its own kind expanding, bursting, pushing its way upward towards the light and air, each one knowing what to do, each one demanding its own rights on the earth. Feel this growth, the surging upwards, this expansion, the pulsing life, all working with the same idea…life, life, life…”

From "Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr." 

Soon you will be able to experience Carr's vision in a new exhibit of her work. "Emily Carr: Deep Forest" at the Vancouver Art Gallery will exhibit over 40 paintings starting December 21, 2013.

Most of the paintings are scenes within 25 km of Carr's home near Victoria, and were completed in the 1930s.

Scorned as Timber Beloved of the Sky, Emily Carr, 1935.

After a trip to view the exhibit, one can get first hand exposure to some of the same forests that the artist enjoyed on the south island. While vastly altered, the green fuse still drives growth and the trees still pulse with life.

"I glory in our wonderful west and I hope to leave behind me some of the relics of its first primitive greatness. These things should be to us Canadians what the ancient Briton's relics are to the English. 

Only a few more years and they will be gone forever into silent nothingness and I would gather my collection together before they are forever past."

One can visit the forest here and be surrounded by the power of nature that so gripped Emily Carr. The natural power of trees that kept her mesmerized is still to be found.

But how long before a trip to the trees yields a vast "silent nothingness"?

Tree Art - Mark Gauti

Tree/Ent by Mark Gauti

Mark Gauti is a local artist that does beautiful Coast Salish art. I love his work and how he incorporates  traditional and modern in his images. I especially love his depiction of a tree being in "Tree/Ent".

Ents are tree creatures in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They are tall, slow, patient creatures which live in the forest of Fangorn and exist to protect the trees.

When I go out into the rainforest I see ents everywhere. They are the elders of the forest. Towering, wrinkled, and shaped by the centuries, they are as individual and distinctive as people.

But we have a problem.

In the Lord of the Rings all the ents are male. No mention is made of female ents, although surely they do exist. Luckily I have the solution.

In the coastal rainforest the straight and strong Douglas fir ancients are the male ents. In old age these tree beings take on the classic look as in the Fangorn Forest. Their ancient limbs are held at attention and are often twisted and broke by tussles with winter gales.

Dripping with old man's beard lichen they stand rigid and determined over the ages watching from their lofty heights over the forest.

And the females? Why they are the Western red cedars of course with their gracefully drooping limbs and feathery braided needle leaves. The female ents have fine stripped reddish paper dresses that peel and flutter in the wind.

When winter comes female ents don't defy the gusts and gales like the male ents. Instead of fighting they go with the flow as they dance and sway uninhibited. They smell good too.


Old Douglas firs, especially when dripping sap on a hot summer day, smell like a cross between a musky earthiness and aftershave. Ancient Western red cedar, on the other hand, smell like the most amazing perfume.

Maybe Mark Gauti will do a companion piece to the one above depicting a female ent. Either way, I love what he did with "Tree/Ent".

The following is from Mark's "Trickster Art" Facebook page:

Biography 

Mark Gauti is a Coast Salish Artist from the T’Sou-ke First Nation. T’Sou-ke Nation is a Coast Salish Tribe on the border of Coast Salish territories and Nuu-chah-nulth territories. T’Sou-ke shares art and culture with the two different tribal groups. Mark uses a wide range of mediums in his art, including: paint and canvas, glass acid etching, drum making, wood carving, photography and digital art. 

Mark worked as an environmental scientist for many years for his tribe T’Sou-ke where he was involved mapping of endangered species and gathering traditional ecological knowledge on traditional uses of native plants for food and medicine. For the past ten years mark has been involved in Coast Salish Culture with participating in drumming, language programs and Tribal Canoe Journeys, as well as researching traditional art and storytelling. Understanding that traditional First Nation’s art and storytelling was the original form of environmental education Mark starting mixing culture with more modern environmental programing with T’Sou-ke and now continues this work with other tribes.  

In Pacific Northwest Coast stories, tricksters are the ones who take on a job that no one else will, often leading to change, and Mark considers his art to be trickster art because he is an environmentalist who sees the way we are treating the earth as wrong and uses art as a form of environmental and cultural education.

Marks' website can be found here.

Tree House Art Car Brings Bit of BC Forest to Burning Man

The tree house art car, built on Vancouver Island, will bring a bit of the forest
 to the Burning Man Festival in Nevada, USA.

How do you celebrate BC trees and forests while in the treeless, water-challenged Nevada desert, site of the Burning Man Festival? Bring a bit of the forest along with you by building a tree house art car, then invite the crowds in among the trees.

That is what a group of Vancouver Islanders are doing with their creatively converted old school bus.

"It's a nod to the BC forest," stated one of the participants working on the project.

Work in progress - the forest is growing.

Some nice BC wood was used on this tree house project, which is currently spreading the sweet smell of tree sap over the dusty flat lands of Burning Man.

Read the article in the Times Colonist here, or go to the tree house art car website to learn more about this creative conversion.

"People all have great memories of tree houses when they were little, whether they fell out and broke their arm, ate a mud pie, made out for the first time or read Playboys. And it’s a nod to the B.C. forest.” 

- Melanie Golder, tree house art car team

Tree Art on Summer Solstice

"Summer Solstice" by Amy Giacomelli.

In this post I wanted to pay homage to beautiful tree art and the Summer Solstice, and Amy Giacomelli's far out tree painting does the trick. I am a sucker for the sacred spiral - it reminds me of tree rings.

What a glorious time of year this is in the northern hemisphere. The sun is at its zenith in the north and the days are long and warm. Deciduous trees are all leafed out, and the conifers are also growing rapidly.

Now is a great time to see the coastal forest in all its splendour, and perhaps do some en plein air painting while you are there. 

Like Amy's art, our original forests are magical. Whether you are painting or not, getting out in the open air and seeing the big trees is guaranteed to please the soul.

Happy summer. Hoping you have many great forest adventures this season.

Take Us To Your Tree People

"Sorry, we are looking for intelligent life forms with patience and a sustainable, cooperative attitude."

"Greetings gentle tree people, carriers of sustainable, cooperative approaches to living. You have so much to share. If we were looking for a cooperative, sustainable model to emulate, your forest ecosystem would be unsurpassed.

Thousands of species working together in perfect harmony resulting in a stable system that can last little unchanged for many eons. Until those pesky suit-wearing humans intervene."

Intelligent life forms know that driving entire ecosystems to extinction is not a good idea. Here is hoping that the new year brings you, the enlightened reader, plenty of forest experiences that motivate you to join the growing chorus to save the last of the old growth on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and around the world.

Happy new year. Happy better year.


"Beam me up. After they killed all the trees there's no intelligent life left down here."

Big Tree Art: Thin Air Trees, Stuart McMillen

The big tree art of Australian artist Stuart McMillen's Thin Air Trees is beautiful, but his connection to trees goes far deeper than his stunning visual representations.

McMillen has a deep respect for trees, and writes, "Once hidden before my eyes, I am now drawn to the sight of trees wherever I look. I marvel at the defiant way they erupt from the ground, pushing towards the sky. I rave over the precarious way they hold their mass above our heads. What I once ignored now forms a focal point of the way I appreciate the world around me."

"A major aim of Thin Air was to make readers appreciate the elegance and brilliance of a familiar, yet overlooked neighbour: the humble tree."

The Thin Air cartoon describes the 17th century experiments of Jean Baptista van Helmont. His 5 year experiment with a willow tree aimed to figure out from where plants got their mass.

The cartoon goes on to describe the natural engineering of big trees that are built with little more than air and water.

The author/artist believes that humanity would be better served if we conducted our business in a more natural, sustainable manner, like the trees.

"To the enlightened person, McMillen says, "trees are no longer just ‘things’ that fill the space between the important, man-made structures of the world. They are incredible in themselves!"

See More

McMillen's work goes far beyond trees, and his cartoons on science, society and ecological sustainability are as thought-provoking as they are wonderful to look at.

See Thin Air Trees at: http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comics_en/thin-air/#page-1

Stuart McMillen's other work can be found at: http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/en/

Watershed Trees

Desert erosion creates beautiful tree-like forms

Do trees look like watersheds, or do watersheds look like trees? 

When water flows the resulting erosion on the landscape can form shapes similar to trees. The 'trunk' of the main river is fed by smaller and smaller 'branches'. The overall form gives the appearance of the canopy.

It is another example of the repeating patterns expressed in nature. If you watch closely you can spot such patterns everywhere.

West Coast Wood Architecture

A whimsical wood creation on the beach, Sooke, BC

Coastal beaches are excellent places to walk, or play, or do nothing but sit and listen to the waves breaking on the cobbles. Riches abound, with seaweed, driftwood and sand on one side, and the magnificent forest on the other. A better playground has never been built.

As I walked on the beach near Sooke I rounded a corner to see the wispy beachfront creation pictured above. As I stopped to look at it I considered whether it was a structure, or a sculpture.

I decided it was both, although the builders might have informed me that it was indeed a 'fort', or 'hut'. Regardless, we would all agree that the woodwork here is a thing of west coast beauty.

The Lookout provides a view of the beach below, and the Juan de Fuca beyond

As I climbed the steep bank behind the wood sculpture I delightfully discovered more woodworking wonders. Stick ladders, boardwalks, and platforms perched precariously in trees dotted the trail. The simplicity of how the natural materials were used appealed to my spartan ways, and reminded me of boyhood discoveries and creations.

However, since I was raised on the short-grass prairie, as a boy I dug more holes than I built tree houses. But I am making up for lost time now, and am enjoying the coastal beaches and trees as often as possible. This is where I like to play.

Trail leads to old growth wonders at the top of the bank

The Gifts Of Trees

Happy Holidays from everyone at VIBT

What would a Christmas celebration be without a tree?


The UN International Year Of Forests is drawing to a close. Now is as good a time as any to give thanks for the many, many gifts given to us by our trees and forests. In their generosity and bounty, trees have paved the way for much of civilization as we know it.


We would not have come as far, or as fast, without the ample gifts of trees. Perhaps this coming year we can consider everything trees have done for us, and then consider what we can do for them in return.

Forests everywhere desperately need us.

Seasons Greetings to all tree lovers and forest defenders.

Big Tree Art: Taralee Guild

Cathedral Grove 3, 2009

I tend not to get out into the forest as much during this time of year. With cooler temperatures and only a few hours of daylight, I am left without my regular forest fix. A rainy, dark day is a good time to stay by the fire and check out tree-related sites on the web.

In the breaks between outings, art is one thing that can fill my need for the beauty of nature. I found the paintings featured in this post on the website DeviantArt, and they immediately drew my forest-deficient gaze. To see a gallery of more of this inspirational big tree art at this site, check out here.

The artist also has a website of more stunning Vancouver Island west coast rain forest art. Check it out here, and get a winter day forest fix - you will not be disappointed.

About The Artist

Taralee Guild (1984-present) lives and works in Vancouver, BC and is originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario. She is inspired by the Canadian tradition of nature painting and the artwork of Tom Thompson, Gordon Smith, and Peter Doig. Taralee Guild will be completing her BFA in Visual Arts at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, graduating in 2010 .

- from DeviantArt

About The Art

Cathedral Grove 3 (above)

This painting is part of a small group of work that materialized from a late winter photo shoot of Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. The area features a combination of old growth Red Cedar and Douglas Fir natural to West Coast BC. This painting looks almost straight up at these very tall trees. The sun was setting, which gave a particular kind of light which illuminated the tops of the tree canopies. Throughout the composition, broken light hits different spots of trunks and bristles.

- DeviantArt

Arbutus Trees, 2009

Arbutus Trees, 2009

Arbutus trees are quintessentially West Coast Canada, being particularly prominent on Vancouver Island. The twisting path of the branches and the peculiar bark are their main features. This painting acquired a nice sky blue for the background, whereas the warm brown bark and Hooker’s Green leaves compliment each other. The thick detail oriented trunk base becoming smoother as it goes up makes a convincing visual perspective. It is meant to feel like looking up at tall Arbutus trees on a nice spring day.

- DeviantArt

Big Tree Art: Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival, Evan Wakelin

I enjoy doing big tree research on line because you never know what kind of good stuff you might come across. I am always on the lookout for great big tree art.

While studying the coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) recently, I came across Gothic Revival by Evan Wakelin. It is a surreal image that links together, for me, the importance of trees to the development of civilization and religion.

Old groves of trees are the original cathedrals. Trees were very important to the ancient Celts and Druids. Many of their religious sites were graced with Yew trees, Britain's oldest growing conifer, and one of the longest-living trees on earth. These trees represented birth, death, immortality and the cycles of life to ancient peoples.

Christian churches and cathedrals in places like Britain were often built on the religious hot spots of the Celts and Druids. Today, sacred Yew trees are still associated with these Christianized sites.

Large majestic trees have always stirred something in humans, and still do judging by how many people visit the remaining impressive groves of the world, whether a place like the incredible Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island, or smaller local groves of trees in parks everywhere.

It is interesting that the artist chose Douglas-fir and not Yew as the tree to match up with the Gothic cathedral. This might be because the Yew is a fairly short tree, whereas the Douglas-fir is potentially the tallest tree species in the world.

It is not entirely inappropriate since the Douglas-fir, according to many a logger, is the most important commercial tree on the planet. No other tree perhaps, has contributed as much to the development of our modern world.

Because of this we should treat the Douglas-fir - indeed, all trees and sacred groves - as the special entities that they are. These, the tallest of living things, are worthy of our worship and appreciation. We should be saving nature's last sacred cathedrals.

Big Tree Art: Emily Carr

Lone Cedar

Post-Impressionist artist Emily Carr was born in Victoria, BC in 1871. At that time the early settlement was a few thousand souls surrounded by towering ancient trees. As can be seen in her art, they had a huge impact on her.

Among The Firs

Carr was fascinated with the coastal forest, and its original inhabitants. She spent much of her life in First Nations villages, and enjoyed the dark haunting forests, wild beaches and vast skies of Vancouver Island.

Odds and Ends

She enjoyed her adventures, and considered herself to be "the little old lady on the edge of nowhere" since many of her locations were, and still are, in isolated locations. Amazing artworks resulted from her repeated forest forays.

Painters and Painting

As Carr aged her focus changed from aboriginal themes toward landscapes, particularly forest scenes. Such scenes depict, probably better than any other artist, the grandeur, magic, and spirit of the coastal forest.

Tree In Autumn

Of her work, Carr said, "I glory in our wonderful west and I hope to leave behind me some of the relics of its first primitive greatness. Only a few more years and they will be gone forever into silent nothingness and I would gather my collection together before they are forever past."

Indian Church

Save Mary Lake Campaign

Emily Carr's words were prophetic, and her beloved and much-exploited forest is indeed fading into 'silent nothingness'. But small bits of the original forest hang on. The Mary Lake property is one such bit.

Carr is said to have frequented a cabin deep in the cool, ancient Douglas-fir forest next to Mary Lake, a short horse ride from her birthplace in Victoria. Here she found the solace and sanctuary required for her art.

This beautiful small lake, surrounded by 107 acres of forest, is currently slated for development, threatening the magic that provides inspiration for the artist within us all to this day.

Find out more about the Save Mary Lake Campaign by clicking on the image on the right.

We could consider saving Mary Lake as a gift to Emily Carr for sharing with us the special way she saw the trees and the forest. She knew how important they are to everything.

Flowering Douglas-fir

Douglas-fir: branching pattern, overall form, and male/female flowers

Most of the conifers of the Pacific coastal forest are monoecious (mon-EEE-shus), meaning they have both male and female flowers on the same tree. Unlike dioecious (die-EEE-shus) trees, which have to find a date with an opposite sex tree (via the wind) before they are pollinated, many of the conifers on the coast can self-fertilize.

Female flowers will develop into seed
cones by the end of the season

Some examples of dioecious trees (male and female flowers on different trees) in the coast forest are Black Cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) and Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia).






The coast has been having one of the coldest springs on record. This has delayed growth of most trees, and everything seems a few weeks behind right now. But the weather can only slow growth down, not stop it altogether.

The bright red-pink flowers of the Douglas-fir are hard to miss, and you can see the form of the finished hard, brown cone beginning to develop. Aided by the wind, the small male pollen sacks on the tree will fertilize the cones so they produce seeds.





Douglas-fir only has a good seed crop every 5 to 7 years. "Previous vegetative growth and cone crops affect the cone productivity in subsequent years and help explain the cyclic pattern of reproduction in Douglas fir." This long lived tree (up to 1500 years) does not even reach maximum seed production until trees reach old growth status, about two or three hundred years old.

Male pollen flowers

Douglas-fir seeds are a major food source for several creatures. In late July or early August squirrels frequently cut a few Douglas-fir cones and then tear them to pieces, leaving piles of cone scales. They continue their sampling until the seeds mature, then begin the harvest that will see them through to spring.

Professional cone collectors can assess a forest stand's cone maturity by watching the squirrels. When the squirrels start harvesting, so do the humans.

The Big Tree Art of George Tirrell: Saving Mariposa Grove

The Grizzled Giant, Sketch from nature, by G. Tirrell.

Giant sequoia, native to California, are amazing trees that can be found on Vancouver Island in Victoria. All were brought here by pioneers from the south as seeds or small trees in the 1800s. It is no wonder that people took the seeds and saplings with them - they were so impressed with these unbelievably large conifers that they did not wish to leave them behind. The pioneers left a legacy in these heritage trees that rise above all others.

Artist George Tirrell left a lasting legacy in the 1800s when he became the first person to sketch Mariposa Grove in what would later become Yosemite National Park. This grove of massive Giant sequoia quickly gained legendary status, and pilgrimages to this natural cathedral became popular. "Go to the Mariposa Grove," Alfred Lambourne advised, "and linger there until the lessons of the place sink deep into your heart".

The Devil's Spear, G. Tirrell

The Mariposa Grove contains many mighty trees. When Europeans first laid eyes on these massive columns of wood they could hardly believe it. When witnesses described the trees to others they were accused of exagerating and/or lying. But the stories were true, and nothing like the Giant sequoias had been seen before.

The Twins, Mariposa Grove, G. Tirrel

Artists like George Tirrell, were inspired by these newly discovered, cloud-scraping monuments. No doubt his work was instrumental in this global treasure eventually being protected.

Artists volunteered their work for this 1989 fund raising book

Similar efforts by artists have helped to save many of BC's beautiful ancient trees just as noteworthy and wow-inspiring as the Giant sequoias of Mariposa Grove. The campaign to save the Carmanah Valley, for example, was stunningly moved along by many Canadian artists that visited Canada's tallest trees and creatively depicted what they saw and felt.

"Campfire conversations would often turn to the stark contrast between the haunting beauty of Carmanah's virgin forest and the slash-choked, burned and blackened clearcuts that lie just outside the watershed. The artists spoke of how the distant growl of heavy logging equipment, carried by the wind from the next valley, affected them...a constant reminder as they sketched and painted, of why they were there." From: Wilderness Committee

Their efforts, like those of artists like George Tirrell before them, helped us to see the amazing beauty and diversity we would be missing if we failed to act.

More Big Tree Art

Drawing of California Redwood

"Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does." - George Bernard Shaw

New On VIBT: Big Tree Art Button

Coastal Conifer, Gregg Koep
Yes, I am obsessed with trees - I can't even prepare a meal without being sidetracked by the allure and beauty of the coastal conifers. This piece almost made itself as I stood at the kitchen counter. The two dimensional sculpture is made from: Garbanzo beans, and dried kidney bean pods.

I posted 'Big Tree Art' back in January of this year. In the post I highlight some of my favourite big tree art, including examples of art works that my partner and I have done over the years. Doing art is a fun way of expressing our love of trees, and gives us something to do in between field trips. Coastal Conifer, shown above, is the most recent addition.

I have been adding to the original post as new art comes around, but the post remains buried in the archives, and somewhat inaccessible. Therefore, I decided to recreate the post as a button at the top of the VIBT page.

Check out the Big Tree Art button every once in a while to see if there have been any recent additions of artwork.

Do you have big tree art of your own that you would like to share? Send it to me and I will publish it here.

Let's celebrate, and pay homage to the contributions and beauty of trees through art.

VIBT Slide Show

I have added a new slide show button under the banner of VIBT. The slide show contains photographs and images used on this blog. I added the slide show to this post for your viewing pleasure. If you run your cursor over the bottom of the frame the controls will pop up. If you wish you can use the arrows to go at your own pace. Enjoy the big trees.