Suze Woolf burned tree painting
 
Painting Details

Varnished watercolor on torn paper
52 x 44
 
The largest of the 40-some burned tree paintings I've done yet, this standing, hollowed-out cedar was very near the origin of the Goodell Creek Fire of 2015 in Washington's North Cascades. I have always been amazed at how cedars seem to both rot and burn from the center out - and yet oftentimes the tree is still living and growing.

As the climate warms, forest fires are becoming more frequent and catastrophic in the western United States. My deep anxiety with the impacts of climate change on wilderness are emerging in this series. Burned-over areas of forest are riveting. Unfamiliar tree forms are newly exposed. Formerly hidden terrain features become visible. Normal greens, blues and browns are transformed. All the worst fires of the last fifty years have occured in the last five years.

Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about any of my images. All represent original paintings, not reproductions. I have many more paintings than are shown on this site. And, since I frequently work in series, there may be additional views of the subjects shown here.