Treescapes, or landscape paintings of trees have long been a favorite subject for Oregon Artist Talya Johnson. An avid gardener all her life, Tali draws constant inspiration from living things. Her works of art featuring trees are rooted in the symbolism and metaphor of nature. The endless supply of historical, anthropological, and mystical context regarding the forests, trees, and the tree of life provide Tali a conceptual groundwork for her painterly language.
In her work, Talya is often driven to portray that which is difficult to find words to describe. She expresses an emotion, a sensation, a color, or a certain sparkle that many would describe "the soul" of the subject. Talya often renders these intangibles in her tree paintings with the use of a palette knife. She finds this critical painting tool best enables her to express the emotions of her experience, allowing others the opportunity to enjoy the subject through her senses. Edges of tree trunk, papery bark, foliage, and sky lose definition and boundaries as the palette knife mingles and flattens the oil color pigments. This dreamlike effect conveys the movement of wind rustling through the leaves, blossoms floating in the sky, or magical dryads playing their song as Tali’s knife and brush dance to the tune. Choose from stately birch tree wall art, to the etherial blossoms from her wisteria tree of life artwork. The images will bring a sparkle of magic to your daily living.
The Music of the Trees - by Charles Andrews Heath
How I love to hear the rustle of the leaves upon the trees
When the foliage of summer is a moving in the breeze
When the oak and beech and maple are a tuning up the air
As they hear the quaking aspen sending signals everywhere.
The deciduous forest people are a music making band
With their symphonies so simple that a child can understand
For there's meaning in their rhythm and a pleasure 'mong the trees
When the wind is blowing through them and a stirring all the leaves.
There's an overture in whispers which is soothing to the ear
Then a chorus full of comfort just a chasing out your fear
As the louder it is sounding and the louder yet again
Till at last are joys abounding when it falls in sweet refrain.
Yes, it brings you heaps of solace when the wind is blowing soft
In a lullaby of nature which will bear you way aloft
Till you leave this world of trouble with its fretting and its care
As you listen to the rustle of the leaves a playing there.
O, I love to stop and hearken to the music of the trees
As the wind is soughing through them or a playing with the leaves
There's a harmony that holds you in the noises of the wood
Where I never tire of listening for it does a fellow good.
