4 trees = 3 hammocks. No tops = getting a tan.
Well, what do you know? Tree paint
I had a vague idea it was to stop mold/fungus, but Wiki says it’s to prevent bugs (termites?) from invading a wounded tree, or to keep citrus from overheating.
OP, no idea, but my bet’s on chainsaw art or some rustic craft. Or maybe the bark is light colored, not gone.
It’s commonly done to citrus in the desert, to prevent sunburn. I don’t prune my trees that severely, so the trunks are always shaded, and don’t need to be painted.
I’ve seen pecan orchards planted this way. The trees are trimmed way back (sometimes to what the OP describes) and then transplanted to the orchard with a large truck mounted tree spade. The lack of a substantial canopy helps the transplant process. The following document has some information:
It used to be pretty common to whitewash the trunks of apple trees to prevent sun scald. The whitewash reflects enough sunlight that the bark doesn’t get warm enough in winter and early spring for sun scald to be an issue.
Tom Waits, What’s He Building In There? And what’s that tune he’s always whistling? WE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW.
Guaranteed.
If you take all the bark off a tree like these people have done, it’s dead. As zweisamkeit says, all you have to do to kill a tree dead is just cut off a ring of bark all the way around the tree (which is why porcupines are considered a pest animal by many given that their SOP).
I love the way he draws out the word Indonesia in that song.
I saw it in Tennessee when visiting my Grandmother. Mama Plant told me it was to protect them from a boring insect larva. I do not recall which insect.
You’d think they would want stuff that worked on interesting insect larva as well.
My Mother’s side of the family was not known for their intellectual abilities.
I think it was some misguided fashion, the tree painting. I don’t see it any more and the maple trees and other common trees they used to do it to seem fine today.
They probably have better poisons and stuff now. It was a practice in the late nineteenth century into the 1960’s. While it was originally to protect the trees, I believe when I saw it in the 1960’s, it was ornamental, practiced by older people who were familiar with it from their youth.
My grandmother in East TN painted the trunks about half-way up, with some kind of lime mixture which she also used on the red clay walls of their dug out basement. She said it made them “clean-lookin’.” I was kind of amused, with a touch of nostalgia, to see the trees done the same way here on the Gulf at one of our fancier restaurants.
So, Grandmothers in Tennessee do it for the look. 
When I was growing up in the 70s they did it in the Florida panhandle. I seem to recall it was to keep away insects but I was very young at the time.
So now they’ve planted a row of what seems to be tiny flowering bushes behind the dead trees. 1 & 1/2 to 2’ behind them, and I don’t think they’re flowering vines anyway, so…
When you say 8’ do you mean 8 feet or 8 inches?
8’ usually means 8 feet and 8" usually means 8 inches. But some people often interchange these terms. I’m trying to understand what you likely mean but I must admit that I can’t quite figure it out.
That picture looks a lot like some kind of Survivor endurance competition and all those guys look Tony from the current season. As a result, I hope they all fall off and break their faces!