Before summer passes us by, I’ve gathered a group of trees from my artwork to show. The first one is a crayon drawing on lined paper from 1963, when I was 8 years old.
crayon on lined paper, 1963, age 8
Jumping ahead 20 years, this tree is from an early fabric relief picture called “Jumping Girl”. My obsession with embroidering leaves was underway!
detail from “Jumping Girl” 1985
This is from my first children’s book, The Way Home, published in 1991. By this time, I’d started making branches with thread wrapped wire. Read the story of the making of the book here.
detail from “The Way Home” 1991
Here’s a faux tile I made for my kitchen in 1990. See the other tiles in an earlier post here.
Faux Tile, 1990
About 10 years ago, I started using more felt and appliqued this tree trunk to the dyed cotton velveteen sky in my book, The Hollyhock Wall.
detail from “The Hollyhock Wall ” 1999
Now, I’m using felt almost exclusively. The next 2 details of trees are from my picture book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes.
detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010
I incorporated many found objects in the “Posies” book and here’s a glimpse of driftwood and bark buildings, with a tree between.
detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010
Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.
SALLEY MAVOR 
All of your trees are beautiful. I never met a tree I didn’t like, and I get so mad when I see them removed. I always think of how long it took to grow, and how quick to destroy.
Thank-you for the trees!
Beth
Love trees, love your trees! It is really wonderful that you have your childhood art. So many mothers didn’t save art…mine didn’t. You could see signs of your design style and eye for detail even then.
Cannot wait for the new book to come out…especially since you share so much with your readers.
This summer has been hard on trees in Southern New England. Many are being cut down and many are dry from lack of rain. My neighbors cut down their huge maple so our house has been in direct sunlight all summer and very hot…I think my street hates trees….
I love this…I doodle leaves and vines constantly. I love the drawing from when you were 8…it would make a beautiful motif on cotton. Have you thought of doing a line of fabrics? I just discovered Spoonflower.com….
I’m intrigued by the idea of custom fabric, too. Too busy right now, though.
Your tree from when you were 8 is quite developed compared to the trees many of my 8 year old students drew on their own in my classes throughout the years. A few instinctively drew more elaborate trees as you did, which I see as a foreshadowing of inborn art talent. I taught 3rd grade for most of my 21 years of teaching and your tree showed your talent! Fun to see and nice your mom saved it.
As always, just lovely. I get so much joy from your work.
Love all the trees! My girls, both 13, and I were sitting looking through Hey Diddle Diddle again last night and loving the tree with the glass leaf beads, and I really like your felt trees with the neat shapes and stitching. The organic materials like bark/wood and shells fit so well with your work – the colors of the felt and threads and the shapes of things are so compatible with nature, which is one reason it all makes me so happy to look at!
Love all the textures, especially the bark and driftwood next to the soft felt and nubby beads….so exciting!
On second look, those nubbies are french knots…wonderful!