Varden Metatarsal

 

Suze Woolf painting of burned tree
 
Painting Details
Varnished watercolor on torn paper
52" x 18"
 
This tree was in the 2021 Cedar Creek Fire, near the Methow Valley in Washington State. I saw it during my Mary Kiesau Community Fellowship. It was silvery on a cloudy day and I tried using iridescent pigments on it for the first time. It was amazing that the snag was still standing; the roots had burned out and there was almost nothing holding it up.

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.