I wanted to paint an autumn tree using my favorite mixed media technique: pictures & oil paint. I ended up taking a picture of the tree right in front of my house, since it was more personal, and I really liked the curve of the sidewalk around the trunk (yes, that was the deciding factor for the picture!).

I then made the entire background as a collage, and scavenged for some cool paper and photographs to start it off. In fact, I used the main photo from one of my other paintings for the grass, since the little stream in the picture was green, and a perfect base! And to make my tree more flamboyant, I used an image editor to boost the colors - a lot!

Finally, I wanted to add a subtle hint about where the picture was taken, so I added a typical suburban American mailbox. When I first moved to the USA, the street mailboxes reminded me of Hollywood movies - in France, mailboxes are just flaps on our doors.

Out of curiosity a few weeks later, I asked my parents (who still live in France) what gave away the location of the tree. They told me it was the tree itself, since it made them think of New England’s Indian summers… not the mailbox!!!