Ginkgo vs. Sycamore

By Kathy Garvey

On my third day at my month long retreat at Furnace MountainZen Center, I realized that the spindly little tree near the Tea House was a Ginkgo Biloba. The leaves have such a fascinating shape that I first decided to paint them and then to play with one of my photos of them in Photoshop.

Watercolor 9x12 Ginkgo Biloba

Ginkgo Biloba, Photoshop (I like to use the shapes of leaves to make brushes in Photoshop. I'm building quite a nice set of them from this trip. The small pale purple ginkgo leaves in the image above are from a brush used as a mask to the layers below.)

On the fourth day's walk, a pretty little leaf with very obvious fuzzy veins on its backside dropped right into my path. I think it's a sycamore leaf. It inspired another watercolor which I enjoyed painting out on the front porch of my cabin.

The cabin sported a shady open porch with room for a table and four chairs.
Squirrels, skinks, deer and birds checked in on me every now and then. 

 And, naturally, the same leaf had to take a few trips through Photoshop.

The woods of Kentucky are awesome. So many trees - a lot of them ones I knew growing up in Maryland. The hillsides are covered with every size and shape and every shade of green imaginable. I'm still working through my collection. More to come.

Kathy Garvey

etsy.com/shop/snailflower

spoonflower.com/profiles/kgarvey