Ash trees on the steep slope adjacent to a sunken bridlepath that descends from our local chalk ridge. This may be a less dramatic holloway than the chalk-faced thoroughfares in parts of east Hampshire (and elsewhere), but it’s still striking and rather lovely. I wanted…
Continue reading Grip – SOLD
The thing about sunken lanes is that they can be quite dark, on account of being, well, sunken. Sometimes, though, you get bright sunlight at just the right angle to send a shaft through the canopy overhead and illuminate something, drawing attention to it, bringing…
Continue reading Into the Light
This was a particularly pleasing collection of shapes that I noticed in the tree that I drew for High and Dry. Ink on kaolin-coated board, 12 x 16″
This August, we embarked upon a family roadtrip to Scotland and back, via the Lake District. There were a couple of things on my list of things to do and see: at the top was a trip to the Derwent Pencil Museum, but chasing close…
Continue reading Inversnaid
A closer look at one of the spectacular beeches, and its exposed roots, at Snelsmore Common (see alse Epic, Chorus Line and Reciprocate). Ink on kaolin-coated board, 16 x 12″
I’m not entirely sure what these mushrooms are, but, as they are growing on a dead tree stump, it’s reasonable to assume that they’re part of the forest’s recycling process, promoting rot or decomposition. The title is an invented word, intended to evoke this idea,…
Continue reading Decomposure – SOLD
I decided to make a large drawing of the long tree roots in Folly Wood Gorge, using a full imperial sheet of watercolour (approx. 56x75cm) paper and coloured inks. I exagerrated the colours and indulged in a bit of careful splatting (an excuse to add…
Continue reading Folly Wood’s legendary roots (part 2)
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)
Sway, inks on kaolin-coated board, 12 x 16 inches / 34x44x3cm framed These hornbeam (and their friend, the ash), seem to be dancing together to a gentle tune. I used pattern again on this one, in the coloured areas, and I think it sits more…
Continue reading Sway
This is one of High and Dry‘s roots. Root Cellar, ink on kaolin-coated board, 12 x 16 inches / 34x44x3cm framed