Who lives here?

     Here is a photo I took while hiking in the woods. My childhood home is nestled in a forest in southern Wisconsin. I grew up studying the trees. While other children made pictures from the cloud-formations, I spent my time looking up through where the knotty-twisted branches overlap, and visualized animals and shapes in the negative spaces between them.

     The light in a forest is very beautiful. The abundance of leaves in the canopy filters out the scorching hot rays of the summer sun and you are left with a million hues of green . In the cold seasons the branches hush the wind - sheltering our drafty house from the sting of the winter.
     Here is a fantastic tree that I discovered on our hike. You can almost see a secret door in the base of the tree. Who lives here? The possibilities are endless, I'll leave it up for you to decide. -Alicia Schwab (photo by Alicia Schwab, copyright 2008)

Rough & Tumble Boys

This is part of a painting of some boys playing on a rather simple piece of playground equipment in the 30's. I was inspired to study the human form as it spins around the pole. I do not normally paint people upside down, so it was both challeging and interesting.

Sword Fight

I recently got into a sword-fight with a pineapple.
It was dicey at times but I held my own.
Eventually, I was able to conquer my opponent.
Purée! I won!