A green landscape

Integrating with nature, 7x10" watercolor

I feel sure that if someone would send me to the woods for a week, I would come out a very different painter. Partly due to being at one with nature; partly, because I’d be taking with me a new pair of eyes. I don’t spend a lot of time in the woods so my surroundings would be mostly new to me. When we see the same things over and over again, we begin not to see them. We become familiar with them, but tend to stop seeing their nuances.

It was almost impossible for me to name this little painting. The building in the background is anything but obscure by way of architectural achievement. It’s the new Education Center that opened in 2009 at the North Carolina Botanical Garden, mentioned yesterday. It is the first state-owned building in North Carolina to have achieved LEED* Platinum Status. Perhaps it’s appropriate that I depicted it in a supportive role to its environment.

The tall pines you see in the painting are North Carolina’s famed longleaf pines. Other than the University of North Carolina sports teams, ever heard of Tar Heels? Two of the byproducts of the longleaf pine are tar and turpentine. Workers in close proximity to these trees picked up tar on their heels and came to be known as Tarheels; North Carolina, the Tarheel State — just a little trivia for you today.

* Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design