The Tree I Can See

The Tree I Can See

watercolor

11 x 14 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

Weather can be quite dramatic here in our Southern mountains. Winter's snow, ice and wind aside, we tend to get a lot of foggy days in the autumn. And summer. Well, winter and spring can have foggy days too. And my neighborhood lies in what is known as the "fog likely zone".  Living at an elevation even higher than our town, there are days when we are socked in with fog at our house, yet a short drive down the hill reveals an entirely different kind of day. Once down the hill our road meets another and there have been days so foggy that I sit at that stop sign unable to see beyond the front of the car. Cars zoom by at that cross road and when the fog is thick and I am unable to see if one is coming I roll down the car windows and listen. Then when all seems quiet I hold my breath and pull out fast. But because I would rather avoid this kind of excitement when driving I have come to rely on our local weather guy's web cams to see what the roads look like before venturing out. Luckily for me there is a web cam right beside this very cross road. It shows a view of the farm there, and on a nearby hill sits a lone tree. When I am considering going out on foggy days I consult that web cam. When the fog is very thick the entire image is gray. When it's not so bad you can make out some shapes. If I can see the tree, then I feel confident. All of this to say that the painting above is of that tree, although from a different view point than the web cam, inspired by my own reference captured in the late autumn on a rather pleasant day.