Color in winter is a difficult affair. I don’t know how they do it, but the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle has a special winter section where the trees show off the most wondrous color palettes.
Above, the leafless small tree with mossy branches seems to partition the colorful background.
Or here, the delicately branched marvels beam in some shade of green, bushes provide a foreground with contrasting colors, while larger trees stay in the back.
High point in complexity of the composition was this Japanese inspired garden where two rust colored trees touch upon a pond. The saturation is surprisingly well balanced by the yellow bush.
What keeps baffling me is the intricate play between structure and color. It feels like the color is the soil in which the abstract shapes can grow.
Then there are the solo performers, single trees effortlessly covering the ground with leaves while still decently wearing their costume.
Some leaves just seem to be perpetually falling.
The Inner Frame 