Watching Lake Serene

This painting was inspired by a photograph I took at Lake Serene. What caught my attention was the relationship between these two trees. I saw something almost motherly in them.

The older tree is tall and weathered, shaped by years of wind, snow, and cold, yet still standing. Beside it grows a younger tree, smaller and still covered in lush green needles, sheltered by its presence.

For me, they became an image of parenthood and of life itself. Life does not offer us soft ground. Sometimes we have to grow on bare rock, exposed to weather we cannot control. And yet there is still beauty, vitality, and a reason to keep growing.

Perhaps one of the things we can give our children is not protection from every hardship, but the ability to see that beauty—to teach them that even when life is difficult, it is worth living, and that something alive can take root even among the hardest rocks.