Art Series: Birches

Ed Nadeau

Associate Professor of Art
Department of Art, University of Maine
Honors Preceptor

Artist Statement

These paintings are based on observations that are inspired by daily walks in the woods near my home. The unique natural ecosystems that I am depicting are sources of light infused, textural forms that offer poetic nonobjective relationships. For me they suggest metaphors of our human existence and are representative of the fragile cycle of life that all beings share. 


The Transmigrants


The Recumbent Birch


Hollow Birch


Little Birch


Editor’s Note

Ed Nadeau’s The Transmigrants was selected as the winner of our fifth issue’s cover art contest. Spire’s editorial team found this painting to be both visually striking and thought-provoking, with each view of the painting revealing details previously unseen. The Transmigrants depicts an ecosystem recognizable to many that wander the Maine woods and represents the cycle of life that we too often forget about in our daily lives, serving as a reminder that the natural world is much bigger than us all.