Backyard Plein Air Painting | Birch Tree Landscape Painting, The Vi Olson Connection

I kept my landscape painting close to home tonight.  I took my pochade box out to my own backyard.  The neighbors have a great clump of birch trees.  Perfect for one last plein air painting of the day, though I had to paint fast to capture the evening light before it changed as the sun went down.

After finishing up with the birch trees outside, I brought my painting inside the house.  Walking through our living room, I couldn’t help but notice a similarity to a small watercolor painted by my grandmother, North Shore watercolor artist, Vi Olson.  I’ve always thought of her as the matriarch of my artistic lineage.  I think this little painting shows that whether I’m thinking of it consciously or not, my grandmother and her birch tree paintings did have a huge influence on me.