Bristlecone Pine 02

The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine is the oldest known living tree species on planet Earth. Some of these living trees have had cores examined and counted nearly 5,000 rings. They live in an extreme environment, little water and a high altitude (over 10,000 feet). And yet they have adapted to the environment in which they live. They don’t grow tall, but they live long.

Their beauty is not the same as most other trees. Their bark is often stripped off by the environment, exposing the rich wood underneath. Many of the ancient trees seem to have half of it dead, but it still thrives and grows new branches, produces new cones, and new seeds.

This painting is of a tree in the Schulman Grove of Ancient Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountains east of Big Pine, California. Some of the paint used in this painting was made from the ashes of the artists studio that was destroyed in a wildfire east of Paradise, California, in Butte County on November 8, 2018. Like the Bristlecone Pine, thriving in harsh environments, the remains of the burned studio have come to life in the artist’s paintings.

8″ x 11″ Original Painting, Watercolor, matted and framed $250.00