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 more colour), all in the aim of emphasising the magical atmosphere that I remembered.
I finished the drawing before a title had occurred to me (often a title suggests itself while I’m working on something). A friend suggested relating it to the Fates of Greek mythology, and that led me to the idea of weaving, which in its turn suggested the word skeins. Combined with the serpentine nature of the roots, the title became Dragon skeins.
Dragon Skeins has been exhibited in Newbury (Open Studios INSIGHT exhibition at the Base, May 2022) and Winchester (Winchester Art Club’s Annual Exhibition at the Arc, November – December 2022). At the latter exhibition, it won the Best in Category (mixed media).
