Spring Beauty (oil on canvas 11 x 14 in.) Sold

May 7's visit to the J. Henry Tweed Conservation Area in the village of Russell, Ontario, involved a competition between spring ephemerals as to which would be painted onsite. The Red Trillium won, and Spring Beauty came second with a series of photographs, which I have used as reference for its portrait.

A magnificent Silver Maple welcomes visitors to this protected valley of a tributary to the Castor River. Its massive trunk is ropy beneath the rough grey bark, fluted like a Corinthian column. A straight, thin scion springs from a crotch in its roots, thrust up through the loose fabric of winter-faded fallen leaves, and here, Spring Beauty cups its delicately pink-striped flowers atop thread-like stems from a tousel of tender green leaves.







This painting is now in the collection of South Nation Conservation, in Finch, Ontario.