Trey Friedman's most recent series of paintings, Trees On A Line, was inspired by a particular tree lined road in rural Connecticut which he isolated to 170 trees he routinely returned to render and observe.
Aerial photo of the trees:
The straight half mile stretch of farmland consisted mostly of of Sugar Maple trees, which the property owner estimates average an age of 150 years with some as old as 250 years.
Numbered photos of the trees:
Beginning in 2004, he began to paint the trees in oil, one by one. Inspired by William Beckman and Chuck Close, he co-opted dead-center compositions and in his words " exchanged the egocentrism of human self-portraiture for the ego centrism of arboreal portraiture."
From life, drawings, oil sketches and photos, Trey transferred an initial drawing, using a grid as a guide, laying in paint square by square with a tiny brush on smooth primed canvas or cradled woodboard panels.
Grid Sketches:
and next to the final art (shown larger later in the post):
Charcoal Drawings and studies:
Averaging 24 x 32 inches, the paintings are rendered in a photographically realist manner. After three months of drying, Trey applied one to five layers of color glazes (with two weeks time between each glaze) to get the light and texture just right.
It's hard to believe the following are paintings and not photographs:
Trey Friedman is represented by Gallery Henoch.
