These two drawings are both on full imperial (57 x 76cm) sheets of heavyweight watercolour paper, It’s handmade paper – as you can tell from the lovely deckled edge visible in my photograph of Mandrake – and somewhat rougher in texture than my usual choice.…
Continue reading Mixing it up: Mandrake and Multifacet
A pair of intertwined oak trees in the park at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. I could see extrvagant gestures in the limbs as if the two were dancing a tango. inks on kaolin-coated board, 12 x 16 inchesframed size 34x44cmprice £420
Some of the extensive branches of an oak tree growing at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. The tree itself bears a plaque, screwed to its trunk, “In loving memory… ” There is a name, and dates indicating that the gentleman in question died in 1984 at the…
Continue reading Branching Out
Two oak trees stand proud of the bracken, each bearing a nest box. These trees are in woodland on the edge of Greenham Common; I have drawn them from a different angle before (see Nestboxes). Ink on kaolin-coated board, 24 x 18″ Framed, black tray.
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
Greenham Common has a variety of habitats, notably a large expanse of heathland with ground-nesting birds, lizards and rare orchids. There are also the fenced-off bunkers (once home, at disparate times, to American Cruise missiles and the D’Qar resistance in Star Wars), a business park…
Continue reading Nest Boxes – SOLD
I’ve drawn this tree before, but I didn’t include the thing that originally drew my attention to it: the “No dogs” sign suspended in its branches! Roadside 12″ x 16″, ink and hybrid acrylic on kaolin-coated board £330 (framed)
Trees are remarkably good at growing amongst rocks. It’s surprising that such a big plant can manage to thrive in such an inhospitable sort of place, but it seems that tree roots are very good at growing down through fissures in rocks and accessing underground…
Continue reading Persistence – SOLD
Bradgate Park, in Leicestershire, lies on volcanic rock and the park’s great oaks seem to congregate around the outcrops. Bradgate was a medieval deer park and was subsequently owned by the family of Lady Jane Grey. Local legend has it that the oaks in the…
Continue reading Cantilever
This is an oak tree that stands by the side of the main road as it bypasses the village. It is part of a narrow wood that screens the backs of some houses from the traffic. Judging from its size, I’d guess that it is…
Continue reading Entangled