ROCKY FOOTHOLD

6 X 8, oil/canvas board

Tenacious roots anchor trees in quite precarious circumstances, be it on the California coast or in the rocky and wooded hills of northeastern Oklahoma.  I have often come across Oklahoma cedars growing out of a crack in a huge rock on a hillside, a rock you know will some day tumble down the steep incline.  Or have the roots of the tree grown deep enough to secure the rock in place for many more years?

Will this cypress hang on for fifty years or will the battering of the waves at high tide loosen its hold and float it away to sea?