"Purple Beech"

This is one of my favorite paintings. This massive beech tree has stood outside of the Reading MA Community Center for decades. It is huge and gnarled. Back at the turn of the 20^th Century, some high school kids carved their initials in this tree and they are still visible.

This is painted on a half sheet of watercolor paper, and is full of detail. This tiny photo of the painting does not do it justice, and the painting does not do justice to the tree itself. When the Community Center was sold to developers to turn it into condominiums, a huge effort was put out to preserve this tree. The developers agreed to that, and the tree stood there for many years. Unfortunately, it eventually died and had to be removed.