I love forests because they are so dense and chaotic. The colors are all very modulated; there are small variations in greens where the light hits the leaves just a little bit differently, and the same goes for all the subtle color variations in the trunks, branches, and forest floor. One thing is the light itself, but the textures and the overwhelming number of tiny shapes just make it a magical experience. With this painting I wanted to create an immersive feeling and place the viewer right in the middle of all this. Just like when you are in a dense forest yourself, you don’t have an overview of the whole scene.
Most of my work is painted by direct observation and has a connection to reality, but for this one I wanted to invent the space. During the process, I did plein air studies and visited the forest to quietly observe. Basically to connect with the trees and to feed my imagination. Nothing was used literally, as I wanted to create a place that doesn’t really exist.
Time of day was let go a little, but to me it has a feeling of the early evening. The light is just warming up. As the main anchors in the painting, a few solid birch trunks grow upward, partially obscured by leafy branches in the foreground. The focus is not on a single part but on the intricate play between light, foliage, spatial density, and the deep shades this can create.
The shades are painted in deep greens, cool blues, and transparent deep crimson red, punctuated by warmer and brighter sunlit passages near the top and through the mid-ground. Leaves are painted with brisk, varied brushwork; some are flat and defined, others flickering and translucent. While the leaves and the light spots suggest a high energy, the deeper shadows and curved trunks create a sense of depth and slow movement. The brushwork shifts in energy across the surface. As you can see better in the detailed pictures, I have varied the use of opaque and transparent layers, just as there is a play between structure and abstraction.
