Woodland Habitat 2 (Fairy homes in the spring)
(framed)
(framed)
Danebury Hill, between Andover and Stockbridge in Hampshire, has featured in my work before (most recently in Deep Dark Wood). It is topped with a significant iron age hill fort, managed by the county council, and is blessed with many lovely trees, most of which…
Continue reading Shaded Path
This is one of my favourite leaning hornbeams, but rather than focussing on the echoing angles of the trees looking down the line (as in Conduit), my attention was drawn to the ravaged remnant of a former tree, the stump in the foreground. The characteristic…
Continue reading Stumped
A close-up on the fascinating whorls and twists at the base of an ancient sweet chestnut trunk. When I first started this tree project, I knew that it could be huge, and so I set a limit on it. I would only consider trees that…
Continue reading Coalesce
This is the first in a new series of drawings focussing on the surface of a tree trunk. The full title was “The Devil is beyond the Detail” (as opposed to being in it), but I preferred the shorter version. The picture is based on…
Continue reading Beyond
16″ x 12″, coloured inks on kaolin-coated board
Pigment inks on kaolin-coated board, 11 x 14 inches. The row of hornbeams viewed through the crook of the end tree. I’ve used a palette based on secondary colours, which has an unearthly feel, echoing the odd angles and shapes thrown by the trees.
This quirky group of mature beech trees are on a long, straight woodbank in a local country park. The hollows make for perfect imaginary doorways and I couldn’t resist associating them with the fair folk. The sensible title is Woodland Habitat; the fantastic title is…
Continue reading Woodland Habitat (Fairy Houses)
This piece was done as a demo for Basingstoke Art Club, which I am a member of. I was originally asked to do a short talk on my techniques for the AGM Zoom meeting, but – as I’m not a very confident talker – I…
Continue reading Lean on Me (with video)
These hornbeams, planted in two rows along the edge of a local wood, continue to fascinate and inspire me since I discovered them last autumn. Not one of them seems to be upright; each of them is remarkably characterful, and together they make any number…
Continue reading Conduit