Renée Bott

Austen's Arboretum , 2014

 
38 x 42 in

acrylic and colored pencil on book pages mounted on Japanese Paper

painted on the pages of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, this work depicts two trees opposing one another in both disposition and structure. Austen's book is a story of opposing temperaments — Marianne's excessive "sensibility" contrasted to Elinor's calm common sense. The sisters' different approaches to pursuing love serves as an agent to heighten the drama of the story. Like the two trees in Austen's Arboretum, each tree is striving for sunlight in their own distinctive way, yet in the end they reach a common goal.

SOLD