Acrylic on panel
12 x 18 inches
2018
 
And now for something completely different. On our summer road trip to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, we decided one day to shoulder our easels and paint kits and hike deep into the woods. We were in an area called Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provicial Park, just west of Cameron Lake. I was looking for a natural subject that was about as far from being picturesque as one could get. I wanted something broken, ragged, and raw. It didn't take long.
 
This 15-foot-tall fragment of a tree appears to have been shattered by lightning within the last year. It's a jagged, splintery, sap-oozing zombie that appears ready at any moment to drop a 4-foot javelin and skewer an unwary passerby. The gap in the canopy above left behind by its toppled upper 80% gave it a bright spotlight of sunshine, causing it to stand out like a diva on an opera stage.