A Light in the Forest
And the Orientation of Love
Sea of Ferns, Oil on Paper, 22” x 30”, 2019.
My painting, Sea of Ferns, is an image that surprised me. The painting began as a depiction of an experience I had in the Camellia Walk during my first stay here at Bloedel Reserve, in May 2018. It was an instance of divine late afternoon light piercing through the tall trees and illuminating one pink Camellia at a time. Pink and Red, glowing like bulbs in the otherwise dark forest.
I’ve painted several versions of this same motif, but this one in particular became linked with another, poetic narrative that takes place off of the back deck of the home where I live when I’m here in the gardens.
The Education Center, Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island
This home was built for Prentice Bloedel, as a private residence, where he could stay after the Reserve became open to the public. This was after his wife, Virginia Merrill, had passed away. Prentice and Virginia had spent a long portion of their lives here, planning and cultivating the gardens as a true labor of love.
The structure of this home, designed by Cutler Anderson Architects, follows the gesture of Prentice’s longing for those years here together.
Site drawing from “Searching for True,” Cutler Anderson Architects, Rizzoli, New York.
Nestled in a forest of ferns and Douglas Firs, the stone plinths of the home are oriented to align with a gravestone at the head of the Reflecting Pond, dedicated to Virginia. A small boulder in the distant meadow marks the axis between them. The angles of the bedroom skew even further, abandoning right-angles, to keep in-line with the gravestone.
I’ve heard that Prentice stayed here for one night only. It was too much for him.
The headstone at the end of the Reflecting Pond now holds both of their names and reads: Are not the best beloved of years / Around your heart for ever?
The small bridge and back deck that reach out towards the Reflecting Pond feel like the bow of a ship, sailing though a sea of ferns.
In my painting, the light through the trees, originally the glowing Camellias, is a vision of love. This warm light is Virginia sailing towards Prentice through a stormy sea at night.
It was surprising to me how this narrative manifested in the painting without my conscious awareness of the slight shift in theaters that had taken place.
I understood clearly the meaning of the image when it arrived, but only later realized that it was not what I had originally started out painting. The juxtaposition happened naturally through the process of making it.
The two ideas became one.
This painting is a document of that union.
Kimberly Trowbridge, Creative Fellow
Bloedel Reserve, July 2020
Sea of Ferns, Oil on Paper, 22” x 30”, 2019.