Abstract is one of the Special Interest Groups in our art collective. A few months ago, we agreed to this challenge: create work(s) based on a shared photo of a leafless tree. It was not a particularly prepossessing image.

Yet a few daring individuals rose to the challenge & recently presented their work to the public.

Said Bobi: "I loved this project! It took me three tries to come up with an abstract. In my first, the colours are somewhat representative of the photo - except the orange sky. In the second, the colours are abstracted, but the tree & its surroundings are still representational. Finally, I went solely by the feeling the photo gave me, ignoring the images--this resulted in an actual abstract."

Lynne also enjoyed the exercise: "With the photo as jumping off point & the nudge with the challenge, I feel I'm finally on the right track. I'd like to do more."

Katie is a new painter. "My second attempt I tried to look more closely to see what part of the image moved me the most." Katie overlapped four brilliant colours to create a moody technicolour work on paper that speaks to mood & remembrance.

I produced variations on the theme, Blasted Tree I & II: one bright & cheerful, the other a subdued multimedia work with a number of stylized trees inhabiting an indeterminate plane of words, textures, flowing colours.

We all agonized a little & learned a lot.