Amazing Fruit Tree Karma Comes Full Circle

Last Summer, I was working in my quiet studio when all of a sudden, I heard a chainsaw. My otherwise good neighbor was happily chopping down a very old espaliered apple tree and a big, beautiful Italian plum tree in the alley behind my home. These trees were perennially generous, healthy, and made delicious fruit without fail year after year. It made me so sad to see them turned into firewood... As a result, we decided to go on a fruit tree spree and planted an apple, fig and pear. And just a few weeks ago, an Italian plum. So was it amazing coincidence or divine karma that I recently received an email from the Editor in Chief of a well-respected publishing house about illustrating a book that's all about planting and caring for - you guessed it - fruit trees! Here are a couple of initial drawings for the cover art. If these sketches go over well, I will make a full color painting in the style of the top banner art on my blog.