Treehouse

The paintings in this book were the result of an experimental watercolor I thought I would carry out in order to figure out how - to paint skies - between tree branches. But instead of logically sketching a series of branches and trying different techniques around them, old habits die hard and I had been a plein air landscape painter for years, so I drew a tree; which naturally needed more to complete a scene. So I added a tree-house platform but it really needed a shack on it. And I...
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The paintings in this book were the result of an experimental watercolor I thought I would carry out in order to figure out how - to paint skies - between tree branches. But instead of logically sketching a series of branches and trying different techniques around them, old habits die hard and I had been a plein air landscape painter for years, so I drew a tree; which naturally needed more to complete a scene. So I added a tree-house platform but it really needed a shack on it. And I added it, but it looked an awful like a fisherman's shack I had painted in New England - which prompted me to turn the platform into a pier with pylons at its corners. And that was the way it went, each thing I added suggested the next until I had painted a scene with boats up in the air, a partly underwater ladder; the pier, fishing nets draped betweeen the ladder to the tree's trunk and more. So when it was finished, one had the feeling it had been painted under water looking up at the pier - and through the surface up at the tree top and at the bottoms of the boats. As watercolors went it was truly pathetic and I hadn't learned a thing about painting between the branches, but it did have that feeling and it was undeniably a fisherman's tree-house. In the doing it became the inspiration for the concept that has driven every one of the painting in this series. And since the paintings were based on the freedoms the concept allows - they were to say the least - different from anything that had existed before. So However, after I displayed the first ten of them in public, it became obvious that people weren't sure how to react to them. Nevertheless, they attracted large crowds; even if they only wanted to stand and look at them, albeit in awe. And perhaps because not one person had asked me for their prices, I soon learned that the more paintings there were, the greater interest they received and the more likely they would want to purchase them - as Giclee reproductions if no other way. Then I put them in an old remodeled factory building with a terrific atmosphere where, I found that just one interested person quickly resulted in a lot of people waiting for my door to open in the mornings. It was at that point I realized I would have to write a book about them unless I could open a museum for them or be willing to continue living like a hermit. Of course the book would have to be of and about my works and include my paintings to be worth buying. That was years ago but I knew even then it would take me a long time to bring it to fruition; I just had no idea how long and how difficult a path it would be. ABOUT the BOOK Its first four pages are full of my paintings with their page numbers under them. The next is a photograph of myself followed by the opening page. After that you will find information about the concept they are built on and further pages of information I think you will enjoy knowing. You will also get to know what happens when an artist comes up with an idea that's years ahead of its time; his ups and his downs. And of course there are the paintings; their explanations and stories about them. It isn't a very long or thick book, but with the paintings to look at and share it could give you a lot of pleasure for a long time to come. I believe it is worth owning, or I would still be working on it. Dan FullerDan Fuller