The Power of Green...

   Sometimes, it is hard for me to imagine that at one point a few years ago, I only did black and white images!  While I still love the softly modulated tonality of the monochrome image, my stroll around the Arnold Arboretum recently made me rejoice in the glorious color of a Spring landscape.  The lime greens, pinks and purples beneath the striking blue skies made me want to pick up my paintbrush again!

   This Texas Red Bud tree was a startling sight.  The small clusters of pink flowers grew directly out of the trunk as well as on the branches.  It seem a bit strange but suited the beautifully magical day.

   The red buds skirted a field of tiny yellow buttercups and between the two, the color palette was breathtaking.  There is much to contemplate when you look at natures handling of color.  There are no "bad" combinations...chartreuse and magenta are the closest of friends.  A painter friend of mine said that in nature it is the ever present greens that make all these colorful juxtapositions palatable. The cool green mediates the opposing, and possibly conflicting, color contrasts.  What is the "cooling green" element of personal and political conflict? I suppose if we could find that out we might be able to mitigate some of  the worlds constant turmoil.  Just throwing that out there for you to consider....