Banyan Tree

Ross Eugene Braught created this print during the period when he led the Kansas City Art Institute painting department. The banyan trees he depicts, however, were like those he encountered years earlier when he lived in the British Virgin Islands. Braught’s meticulous rendering of the intertwining trees transcends a realistic depiction. Verging on the surreal, the trees along the coastline closely resemble human anatomy. Trunks, distinctive roots, and branches morph into torsos, crossed legs, and stretching arms, dwarfing the real human walking into the distance on the left-hand side of the composition.