Patterns with Birch Trees & Their Bark

Birch trees are a favourite with artists; few can resist the white trees, themselves heavily patterned, that stand out as a linear pattern against almost any background.

The birch trees turn all golden in the fall up in the hills above Merritt, BC.

Winter at Whistler. 

Spring at Banff. 

Now to summer at the Rock Carvings Site in Tanum, Sweden, an UNESCO World Heritage Centre with this tree that has had a layer of its bark stripped off.

This is the archeologist’s prediction of what a home from Nordic Bronze Age 9700 years ago must have looked like; its inner walls lined with birch bark in an alternating pattern of inner and outer bark. 

I folded some birch bark ages ago to reveal the colour differences between the white outer bark and sienna coloured inner bark. Although the above were recreations of buildings from 9700 years ago, I see I’m fascinated by the same things as my ancestors!

The white outer bark of one of the panels looked like an abstract watercolour with wonderful variations in the patterning of the two strips. 

More bark patterns from different types of Birch trees… 

Like stitched scars.

Banff again and a scary eyeball stares out at you from the tree. 

At the UBC, a peeling paper bark birch.I have turned this image sideways – artist’s prerogative!

Birch tree bark at Cahir, Ireland.

And finally, as this is an art blog, I have layered one of the Tanum site walls over the stand of Birch trees in Banff. I see a lot more birch tree paintings in my future!More of the Len-Artists Photo Challenge: Patterns.