By
Merrill Shea
Piece description from the artist
The Bristlecone Pine trees are considered by many scientists to be the oldest living organisms on earth, some more than five thousand years old. They are found in only a handful of locations in the western United States, from eight to twelve thousand feet, where little else survives. These photographs were taken in the largest grove, located in the White Mountains of eastern California. Photographing them has been one of my passions for many years.
Because of the harsh weather conditions at those altitudes, they grow only fractions of an inch per year. Over time, the winds carve the trunks and limbs into fantastical swirls. Only a small section of the original tree may be alive, but the wood is so dense that the dead portion remains intact for hundreds of years.
Sunrise and sunset are the best times to catch the deep reds and ochres and the striations in the wood. That means leaving my campsite at 3:00 a.m. and hightailing it along the worst washboard of a dirt road you can imagine, praying I don't get a puncture; then hiking by headlamp in order to be in place by 4:00 a.m. sunrise.
Merrill Shea began his artistic career as a classical musician and then gradually migrated toward the visual arts. He has worked as a free-lance photographer in the commercial, non-profit and academic worlds throughout Eastern Massachusetts for over twenty-five years. He is entirely self-taught.
Merrill spends at least one month every year traveling primarily throughout New England and the Pacific Northwest. While his oeuvre includes urban imagery, his primary inspiration comes from the natural world. His TurningArt offerings represent a selection from his personal projects, which range from intimate and panoramic seascapes to interpreting the oldest living things on earth: the fantastically gnarled bristlecone pine trees that survive at twelve thousand feet above sea level.
Merrill continues to explore the varieties of color, graphics and texture that are possible within the photographic medium. Like many photographers, he has been influenced by the iconic black and white nature photography of Ansel Adams. In that regard, he has included identical images which he feels are effective both in color and black and white.
Merrill has always been fascinated with the medium of watercolor and has recently been exploring the possibilities of using various computer techniques to produce watercolor-like images from photographs that, in many cases, are indistinguishable from true watercolors.
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