Kristin Leachman: Xylem Rays, Laguna Art Museum, CA., 2017
Xylem Rays
In my series Xylem Rays, I paint the self-organizing patterns that emerge from trees’ vascular tissue, known as xylem. The Xylem Rays paintings require prolonged visits to forest lands and sustained periods of reflection and study in my studio. Informed by both my own metaphysical connection to and physical dependence upon nature, I make nearly photorealistic representational paintings of xylem that, due to the inherent formal characteristics of their subjects, read like biomorphic abstractions. Together, the paintings in the Xylem Rays series depict the natural history of the landscapes from which they emerge, written in the unspoken language of the structural integrity and biological resilience of trees.
Xylem 14 / (Black Oak, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California), 48 x 60 x 2 inches, oil on linen, 2020. Private Collection / NY.
Xylem 13 / Ode to a Grizzly (Black Oak, Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada Mountains, CA.), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, oil on canvas on panel, 2018.
Xylem 12 / Deer White Bison (Coastal Live Oak , Lower Arroyo Seco, Pasadena, CA.) 60 x 80 x 2 inches, oil on canvas on panel, 2016. Collection of Laguna Art Museum, CA.
Xylem 10 / Ode to a Mountain Lion / P-22 (Canyon Live Oak, Los Padres National Forest, CA.) 60 x 80 x 2 inches, oil on canvas on panel, 2016.
Xylem 8 / (Coastal Live Oak, Sequoia National Park, CA.) 60 x 80 x 2 inches, oil on canvas on panel, 2014.
Xylem 7 / (Coastal Live Oak, San Gabriel Mountains, CA.) 60 x 80 x 2 inches, oil on canvas on panel, 2014.
Xylem 6 / (Coastal Live Oak, Angeles National Forest, CA.), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, oil on canvas on panel, 2013.
Xylem 3 / (Coastal Live Oak, San Gabriel Mountains, CA.) 60 x 80 x 2 inches, oil on canvas on panel, 2012.
Xylem 2 / (Eaton Canyon, Angeles National Park, Altadena, CA.), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, oil on canvas on panel, 2012.