Silver Birch Trees for 2020

In Irish Folklore trees are considered sacred. Different trees have specific purposes and are revered as a source of magical powers. Birch trees were thought to provide love, protection, and purification while also symbolizing new life.

While searching for my next subject to paint, I came across information about Samhain, or Halloween. The Silver Birch was celebrated at this time of year since it was thought to hold protective powers against evil, and as we all know, the portal between the realm of the living and of the dead is at its most delicate state at this time. ;) Birch branches were gathered and used as a practical garland to warn away unwanted spirits as well as protect young children and babies from sickness and the occasional possession of bad spirit(s). Cradles were made out of birch as well as brooms for similar practical magic purposes.

Although I don't believe in evil, I do believe in all the good stuff, and felt that before I wrapped up my Covid Is Crap & 2020 Will Surely Wilt My Everlasting Soul series of paintings, I'd like to include a birch tree landscape for the best of luck. In addition to painting, I love natural history. It's interesting to read what a given tree symbolizes in Irish Folklore and then directly compare this to its natural, scientific make up- you'd be surprised! Birch trees offer medicinal properties and grow in curious clusters, often in places where other trees couldn't possibly survive. In these clusters, several trees are grown out of just one root system, offering healing properties from its sap, tea from its leaves, not to mention the bark.

If you like trees, at all, just like my friend John, I recommend reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben -you'll never look at a tree the same again- and I especially recommend pairing this scientific read with a general light study of the 13 Trees in the Ogham Moon Calendar. [Be forewarned, after reading Wohlleben's book, I found myself often looking around my yard in horror at all the orphaned, individual trees I haphazardly planted on a whim over the years, scattered ...all around my yard... Poor things; no family or language whatsoever. No fungi friendships to fallback on, nothing. ...Yup.] However, if you're not a big reader and you rather just look at my painting process, well here you go:

A vague sketch for placement. I put stars on the trees I planned to detail the most.

Starting to look tree-like, but I haven't actually painted the trees yet.

Here's what the beginning of the layers looks like. Pretty impressive, huh?

Once I get some paint on the canvas, it is time to focus on the birch trees. Fun fact: Although I'm painting based on my interest in Irish folklore tradition, these particular birch trees, in actuality, are from a reference photo taken in Montana. Shhhh

Here I am applying size (fancy glue) to adhere the silver leaf. You must apply it as thin as it is and then let it dry. For this I take the canvas off my easel, lay it flat, and use good lighting to kind of see where I am applying it. This can be time consuming since it is clear, dries clear, and I find myself going back, blindly touching my canvas, wondering where it was I placed the size. It needs to dry in order to be tacky. This is often a processes. A total of 4 for this painting.

It's the best! Once I shed off the excess, I gather up the unused silver leaf and can apply it elsewhere...or I could've if the kitten didn't insist in rolling around bathing in silver flakes.

She's a lush.

Although I find it hard to photograph artwork with metal leaf -like most things, in-person is best- here is the final piece:

36" x 48"

I added layers of copper leaves scattered across the canvas and antiqued the edges of silver on the birch trees with an burnt umber antiquing glaze. This, like everything worth while, adds more steps because you must seal the silver leaf before glazing. I used an acrylic gloss varnish in between layers. When applying the glaze, it is a glaze-on, glaze-off routine; I used q-tips which worked well for those details.

Thank you kindly for reading,

BDP

PS: It took all the strength I had not to add a gray wolf, raven, or snowy owl.