New Work

Artist’s Statement


Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.
- Chinese proverb

With roots deep in the soil and branches reaching for the sky, trees remind me of the Sufi men I saw whirling in Turkey several years ago, one hand pointed up toward heaven and the other down to earth.

As I continue to observe and paint trees, I am reminded of how ever-present they are in my life, every day. Growing up and living in the northeastern US, I am surrounded by trees. Sometimes I see them individually: a magnificent single presence against a clear sky, but as I often do with groups of people, at times I lose sight of the lone tree, focusing more on the crowded room or the forest. This green collective surrounds me, comforts me in my visual landscape any time I open my eyes. I try not to take them for granted.

I love the ubiquitous green that identifies trees, the green that I yearn for in early spring, and am ready to let go of by fall. But when I paint them, I find myself sometimes pushing out from the familiar green into new colors, new ways of seeing.

I am intrigued by the overall shape of leaf over leaf and the light peeking in between them; at times the small pieces of light become more important than the leaves, needles, or fronds themselves, and I’m uncertain whether the true subject of my painting is the tree or the light.

Mimo Gordon Riley
July , 2008

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