[(Oak: One Tree, Three Years, Fifty Paintings )] [Author: Stephen Taylor] [Jan-2012]

by Stephen Taylor

It was an exercise to learn how to see, to understand just one thing in its greatest detail. Stephen Taylor came across the 250-year-old tree while on a walk in Essex, England, six years ago, shortly after the deaths of his mother and close friend a tragic time that brought him back to painting and then to an obsession with realism and color perception. He painted the same oak scores of times over a period of three years, in extremes of weather and light, at all times of day and night. Oak is nature's creed of endurance (the tree was standing when Jane Austen was just a baby) and of one man's promise to find beauty in a painful world.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published October 19, 2011

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oak by Stephen Taylor (20-Nov-2011) Hardcover is an ode to the beauty of the oak tree throughout the seasons, and this is presented, sometimes rather wonderfully in a series of paintings by Taylor, which span over the course of three years.

I saw this book upon the coffee table where I was staying, and I thought it would make for some interesting, but light reading. The pages are mostly full of paintings, but there is some added commentary from Taylor about the background to each of the paintings. I found this part fascinating, enjoying in particular, the evening paintings. There is something incredibly atmospheric about an ancient Oak tree against the backdrop of the evening mist.

This was an informative and well presented book, which I'm happy to have encountered on my travels.

[Weathergrrrl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't done much painting myself but really enjoyed the insight to this artist's process. Oak trees speak to my soul and I found these paintings captured some of the experience of relationship between human and Oak.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Although I am a little biased, because I have a deep love for Oaks already. I found it to be fascinating his years of dedication to painting the same oak, and the process behind it all. There is so much I could touch on… I especially enjoyed his reference to “Burnt Norton” the poem T.S. Eliot poem from The four quartets. I actually stopped and fell down that delightful rabbit hole to understand better where he was coming from while painting Swallows at 11 AM. Which is absolutely my favorite pieces that he did! As soon as I saw it, I felt a connection to this one I would love to have it in my own home. Excellent read, very insightful, and love learning his methods. And I found his life story with his family to be very moving as well.

[Grace]

Much like Monet's haystacks, Taylor explores oak trees in different lighting, trying to capture all visual phenomenon he experiences. Some paintings are loose, others are tightly photorealistic, all are naturalistic. All contain details one only notices when they spend countless hours over 3 yrs studying one subject matter. His exercise stays away from obtuse art jargon and conceptualism and instead focuses on the technical aspects of painting, and the joy (or possibly nostalgia) one experiences when they see something familiar and recognizable.

[Ron Bernas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book about tree obsession. But this one with beautiful paintings! It's always fascinating to read about an artist's process.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book caught my eye because of its beautiful reproductions of the paintings the author made of the same oak tree over a span of three years, capturing the tree in different seasons, at different times of the day and in all kinds of weather. But now that I’ve finished it, I think it’s really all about paying close attention to what is to be seen right in front of us day after day and the discovery of noticing things we might otherwise overlook. Stephen Taylor isn’t simply a “landscape painter.” He’s also a keen observer of the natural world and this fascinating little book includes a series of paintings rich in detail about images from nature that had drawn his close scrutiny. Each painting is accompanied with a little bit of information about the natural science underlying what we see as beautiful. For example, a close-up painting of fallen leaves on the forest floor is accompanied by a description of the slugs, mites earthworms, snails and millions of bacteria that have a role to play in what will happen there between autumn and spring. The book includes an essay written by the artist that describes how he went about making his series of oak tree paintings and the various techniques he used both indoors and outdoors. I was fascinated by how meticulous he was as he planned every detail of this ambitious project and how he combined it with the knowledge he had acquired about natural science. It also amazed me that he had enough patience to keep going back day after day to the same place he had been before to look at the same 250 year old oak tree that he had already painted numerous times. Finally…I once heard that a book isn’t worth reading unless it gives you something new to think about or has a word you’ve never come across before. This book had both: a new way to think about looking at a tree, and quite a few words I’d never come across before. My favorite: pochade: a small sketch box, developed in the 19th century for painters to use outdoors, with a strap that can be looped around the artist’s neck so he/she can paint standing up, and a slotted lid with panels for transporting wet paintings from outdoors back to the studio.

[Karen]

* 40 Books to Read Before Turning 40
The manual for making your first four decades the most joyful, wise and stress-free of your life.

Some books show you how to laugh, some show you how to think, but, every once in a while, one will show you how to live. The exquisite Oak: One Tree, Three Years, Fifty Paintings follows the story of artist Stephen Taylor, who decided to paint the same oak tree in the English countryside every day for three years. The titles of his ensuing works reveal the detail with which he pursued his vision: Oak with Crows, Oak After Snow, Oak at Night in Winter, Oak in Early Spring. There are no abstract oaks or evocative splashes of ink meant to suggest an oak. The trees are realistic, some with an almost photographic precision—revealing the larger point. As the oak changes by the month or hour, the surrounding environment changes. Barley fields are cut down and rise again, jets stream by through the sky, blue tits forage in the leaves, and damselflies swarm below the branches. A singular plant becomes a totem for the passage of time and seasons—and you, as the viewer—begin to change too, becoming more observant and aware of the tiny yet enormous natural transformations that take place each day and minute. Seeing, in the truest sense, is the lesson here, one that's taught with such elegance that you'll be bewitched into stopping and contemplating the birch or maple in your own yard that's serving—as T.S. Eliot once described trees—as "the still point of the turning world."

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically an art book of many paintings done over a three year period, very little text. But I do miss the oak trees we had on the farm. If there is one tree you plant, make it an oak, it supports so many habitats.