THE FORESTER'S HOUSE

The Forester's House, 16 x 12 inch oil on canvas by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

My problem with the natural summer foliage of the American Midwest where I live is that it is all pretty much the same green color-- the trees, the grasses and the shrubbery.  That's why most of my Midwestern landscapes feature prominently big areas of other color like buildings, plowed fields, bodies of water, roads, or railway tracks against which the foliage can act as counterpoint.  The Forester's House is a rare example where I have let the foliage take center stage because I really like the shift in color and texture that the blue spruce trees at the heart of the painting make with both the deciduous forest in the background and the shrubs and day lilies in the foreground.  I like the rustic house in the forest too that gives the painting its title.  This was painted on-site in a public park in Schaumburg, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago.