Tree Shadows

Tree shadows are wasted on a summer lawn.
But after a few inches of fresh snow on a sunny winter morning, the shadows of a majestic tree mirror its architecture.  Like a kaleidoscope under the rising sun, the shadow reveals the sinews and tendons of last year’s growth, stripped of its summer foliage, on a flat frozen canvas.
Here on the plains of Eastern Colorado we rarely get to enjoy the softness of nature. Our rains and snows come in torrents, driven by winds that seem desperate to move things along. So when nature gives us a fleeting glimpse of her artistry, we pause for a moment and take notice, knowing that the next time we look it will be gone.
In the eye of an artist, these are the kinds of things worth capturing, to incorporate into a watercolor, or in the design of a bronze pendant. They are images seen only out of the corner of one’s eye, or blended into the background, as mere texture, contrast, or pattern.
But please don’t think that we under-appreciate the shadows of trees during our long, hot summers. In the summertime we just call it shade.