October 7, 2025 - Last year I was approached by Patrick and Jeannie Wilshire, the masterminds behind the IX Art Show, about creating a large painting for Illuxcon's 18th year. The event (which is only two weeks away now!) is the highlight of my year, and I've been itching to work on something bigger, so I was honored and happy to take the commission. We determined it would be 36" x 48".   The commission was open-ended, but a tree painting was suggested...which is great because I won't be tiring of painting them any time soon! Usually I determine the canvas size by the subject matter, but for this one, size came first and I had to create a concept to fit.  Working backwards, I determined that the tree needed to be imposing, but should be surrounded by something…