September 27, Birch Trees

Renee Magritte (Rene Magritte, Wikipedia) said, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe). My interpretation of this famous (well, famous to artists) line tells me a painting is free to break from mere representation of a thing. You can't hold the pipe in his painting, you can't put tobacco in it and you can't smoke it.

In a painting of birch trees you can't touch the bark, pull a leaf off a branch or smell the scent of the woods. So I break free from the "thingyness" of the subject and begin to concern myself with the challenges of the paint, working through different processes, and develop one of many solutions presented to me.

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

September 27, Birch Trees, 2013 (18x24)