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NIGHT LIGHT 

© Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Coloured Pencil,  10.25" x 8"

This was the view out my studio window one night when I couldn't sleep.  I've always been a night-owl at heart and by nature, and when I can't sleep I often find myself at the old drawing board in the wee small hours of the morning, while the rest of the world slumbers on, blissfully unaware that I'm hard at work while they dream. 

This particular night, there was just a hint of fine snowflakes in the air, and they had the effect of refracting the lumination from the streetlight across the road in an unusual way, casting this orangey-greenish glow over everything.  The impression was of an other-worldly winter landscape, and I was immediately grabbed by the absolute need to try to recreate those colours on paper. 

This is the result, and it is a bit of a departure for me.  I've always admired and appreciated how different the world looks without the sun's light to give us the 'normal' colours of daytime,  but I've never tried to capture those sometimes eerie tones, until now.  I'm thinking this might lead to more night scenes  -   we'll see.  Time will tell. 

For some reason I keep coming back to trees as subject matter.  Perhaps it harkens back to my tree-climbing days of youth, when I spent a lot of time up in one of the big old maples which lined our country lane.  Perhaps I wished I could be a bird.  Perhaps I just liked to watch others, unobserved.  Whatever the reason, my collection of 'tree paintings' just keeps growing. 

Arbutus trees with their fascinating red-orange bark can be found all along the Malahat trail, on Vancouver Island.  Looking out over the valley, this specimen stands proudly against the sky, surrounded by lush spring growh.  This was a tree I observed when I was out there fourteen years ago, awaiting the birth of my first grandchild.  Good memories.  :)