Fall At Shaw

My impressions:
Tree branches reach up to present their warm colored fall leaves to the cool cloudy sky.

My friend, Elaine’s impression:
Color pops as leaves begin their glorious metamorphosis beneath the fluffy white horse racing across the blue fall sky.

The story behind creating the image:
I wanted to do an experiment comparing the effectiveness of photographs vs paintings for relieving patient & staff stress in a medical environment. I knew a friend who was a plein air painter was going to be working at Shaw Nature Preserve outside of St. Louis, MO, so I went there to photograph the same scene he was painting for later experimental  use. I ended up making a large gallery wrapped canvas print of this image, which I displayed in my one man show at Longview Farmhouse Park in Town & Country Missouri. During the show, I asked guess to select which of my pieces they would like me to donate to Missouri Baptist Hospital to help their patients & staff. This is the one they chose, which I subsequently donated when the show had ended.