Fir Snags

I have long been fascinated by the sad ghost forests of the high elevation southern Appalachians. I vaguely remember some of them in their more verdant state when I was very young, before the Balsam woolly adelgid had taken its toll. But decades have passed and the old dead trees that remain appear to me now more as beautiful, decaying, old sentinels, chronicling the history of this harsh, spectacular landscape. For that, I felt they deserved a portrait on this hazy May day, as I studied the plant communities of Mount Mitchell.

Painted on location 2003, reworked in backyard studio 2007.