Dragons have appeared in my work before – there have been stylized dragons in paint and print, and suggested dragons in tree drawings – but this side-project is a little bit different. It started with an art club challenge: a 6×6″ picture of a pet.…
Continue reading Diversion: Dragons
It’s always rather sad to discover a dead creature. This bee, which looks like a buff-tailed bumblebee queen, expired in our house and when I found it, I decided to draw it. I used a magnifying lamp, but very little, if any part, of my…
Continue reading Queen Bee
Staying with the A3 size, I moved on to white paper for the next set of green men. I decided to name this group more consistently. They became the Vikings, all with Scandinavian names and with decorative elements similar to the sort of designs that…
Continue reading Green Men in coloured pencil (3)
It being winter, I had moved in to the house to draw my green men. Coloured pencil is a fairly innocuous medium, with the possible exception of the pencil shavings. But the only drawing board that I have that is big enough for a sheet…
Continue reading Green Men in coloured pencil (2)
I wanted to take the green man idea a little further than my series of small (10x15cm) lino cuts allowed. Green men, in the form of foliate heads, are found as carvings in stone or wood in some medieval churches, so I decided to draw…
Continue reading Green Men in coloured pencil (1)
Last autumn, I picked up a twig with leaves on it and brought it home because I wasn’t sure what tree it was from. I decided that it was probably some sort of poplar and left it outside the back door. In the spring, I…
Continue reading Skeleton Leaves
These are three small studies of lichen on a twiggy branch that I picked up in the New Forest recently. From left to right, they are Lichen 2 (horizontal), Lichen 3 (square), Lichen 1 (vertical). Lichen 1 was made on an Ampersand Scratchboard, Lichens 2…
Continue reading Lichen Studies
I have put together an illustrated list of the works included in Sylva, my solo exhibition at the New Era theatre in Newbury. It includes the exhibition statement and my artist’s statement, as displayed in the exhibition, as well as titles, media and prices. It…
Continue reading SYLVA Exhibition – Illustrated list of works
This is a fun little series of acrylic paintings on canvas, intended to complement my tree drawings. The first of these little paintings, Three hazelnuts, was made at the behest of The Prince’s Trust, who sell these specially created 20x20cm canvases for a fixed price…
Continue reading Things That Fall Off Trees
There’s a ridge in Wiltshire not far from Devizes, that has a gap in it, a place where the bedrock cracked, perhaps. A track (it’s a bridleway) passes through the gap. The sides are high, and trees grow on the chalky high ground. It’s a…
Continue reading Folly Wood’s legendary roots (part 1)