Why am I obsessed with Banyan Trees?
I admit to being obsessed with trees, in general.
But I return again and again to paint banyan trees at local parks and use my reference photos taken long ago while living in Hawaii. I’m in awe of living with these giant neighbors- their sinewy roots above ground, their snake-like vines and wide-reaching limbs. They are so different from the trees in Virginia, where I grew up. Even though they are large and sturdy, there is also a vulnerability to them with so many limbs, shoots, and vines bared. In the quiet of the forest it’s as if I can hear the number and variety of trees singing to one another, connected in a hum of aliveness. While in parks the trees are separate, manicured, outnumbered by concrete, bricks and the dizzying movement of cars. I see them but have to really quiet myself to experience them. In city parks or streets trees seem silenced by the noise of the surrounding city. But the towering banyans, well, they command your attention.
a banyan tree in a park full of palms
is like a whale in an ocean of fish,
calling from deep below us, speaking
to a buried part of
ourselves.
I’m not the only one obsessed with banyan trees. While plein- air painting, I watch lots of tourists take selfies and stand beneath the trees. Many hug the wide trunks or sit among the roots for a while.
So I’ll share a few images of my journal sketches, watercolors, and mixed media pieces from the last years. It’s challenging to paint such a large subject. One always fails in capturing the awe and largeness of them.
Poetry- Lessons of a Banyan Tree
This poem is my newest. I started to write about the experience of being in the precense of banyan trees to get clearer about what I was trying to capture, what colors I was drawn to, what my experience in parks has included.
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Spending so much time in local parks, I watch the tourists, birds, and shifting lights. In the poem (and in many paintings), I’ve added a new obsession- pigeons. Here’s a mixed media piece inspired by the poem about my visits to Tetuan Plaza’s banyan trees. Here, pigeons are standing among the bare roots of the Banyan trees. Enjoy!
