From Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting, by John F. Carlson –

To the insensitive or unfeeling, a wood merely represents a heterogeneous multitude of vertical sticks.  A good “stand of trees” means dollars and cents: or perhaps a place where one can hunt.  To the artist the forest is an asylum of peace, of dancing shadows, of sun-flecked green.  The rugged trunks are stalwart guardians – green, violet, and russety grey – with their reaching branches meeting in a noble arch overhead.  An eloquent silence, made up of a myriad of pleasant sounds, seems to hang in the air.  Hundreds of little eyes gleam timidly from their refuges; small ears are alert to determine the intention of an intruder.   (If the snow is upon the ground, you may see footprints upon its soft surface.)