Coastal Oak #209

Coastal Oak #209 is an original oil on paper by local artist Retta Dotterer, capturing the layered beauty of the live oaks that define so much of the South Carolina Lowcountry landscape. Rather than treating the tree as a traditional portrait, Retta moves in close, allowing twisting trunks, overlapping branches, and surrounding foliage to fill the composition with color and movement.

Loose, expressive brushwork shifts between soft gray-green, olive, warm brown, muted blue, and earthy ochre, while flashes of coral and pink appear between the branches and throughout the landscape. The result sits somewhere between landscape and abstraction—the longer you look, the more the forms of the coastal oak emerge from Retta’s layers of color and gestural marks.

Painted in oil on paper, Coastal Oak #209 feels fresh and contemporary while remaining rooted in one of the Lowcountry’s most recognizable natural subjects. Retta’s distinctive hand-painted pink border brings the color all the way to the edge and becomes part of the artwork itself, giving this one-of-a-kind original an unexpected finish.

12"W x 9"H