Morgaston Wood is part of The Vyne estate, a National Trust property near Basingstoke, in Hampshire. It is open to the public and seems to get a lot of dog walkers. The wood itself seems to consist largely of sweet chestnut trees, a handsome, non-native…
Continue reading Morgaston (Sweet Chestnut)
Hornbeams in Hainault Forest. I had time to kill in London, so I took the opportunity to ride the tube to the outer limits of the city (to the north and east, furthest from where I live in Hampshire) and visit a suburban forest. Hainault,…
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This tree is on the bank surrounding the upper car park at Danebury Hill (between Andover and Stockbridge in Hampshire, England). The hill is the site of a large and magificent prehistoric hillfort, but I rather suspect that these earthworks are more recent. 12″ x…
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This was the last of my Open Studio drawings (which means that I was working on it in the studio while it was open) in May this year. It is based on a photograph taken in the holloway Mill Lane, a bridlepath near Hawkley in…
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Mary, Mary, quite contrary,How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row. The dainty plants that are “all in a row” in front of the main tree brought the quoted nursery rhyme to my mind and…
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Hungers Lane near Petworth is a sunken lane that was formerly the main road from Chichester to London. It was abandoned when Capability Brown remodelled Petworth Park along with the subsequent relocation of Tillington village in the 1750s and 60s. The National Trust, Where to…
Continue reading Deep Green
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…
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A natural staircase leading up from a sunken footpath. Drawn from my own photograph during Open Studios, May 2023. Ink on kaolin-coated board,14 x 11 inches
Elegantly curved, reaching to the sky, three living beeches and a dead tree seem to dance on the high ground to the side of a sunken lane. This is another scene from the wonderful sunken lane in Witley, Surrey. Ink on kaolin-coated board, 12×16″ SOLD…
Continue reading Shadow Dance – SOLD
This drawing revisits one of the specific subjects that got me started on this extended study of trees and their roots in ink. The beech woodland on the side of Danebury Hill partly occupies the outer rampart of an iron age hill fort, and ,…
Continue reading Fortification