Natural erosion of the chalky soil frequently reveals the roots of trees on the Hampshire hangers, but this beech is an extreme case. Immense, intriguingly intertwined, the muscular, naked root structure forms an intricate lattice roof over an intimate hollowed-out cavern. Somebody has fetched branches…
Continue reading Palisade – SOLD
The Ankerwycke Yew is, according to tradition, the tree beneath which King John signed the Magna Carta. It certainly could have been – it is old enough and in the right sort of place – but we may never know for sure. It’s a very…
Continue reading Ankerwycke
Overhang was worked up using photographs that I took a couple of years ago near the hamlet of Empshott Green in Hampshire. It’s a small place, accessed by small, steep roads set into pale, friable cliff faces of malm rock. These cliffs, riven with tree…
Continue reading Overhang – SOLD
One of the blessings of lockdown was the necessity of restricting my explorations to the local area. It seemed as if the whole village and its dog were heading out along the more obvious paths into the (rather lovely) local hills, and so I went…
Continue reading Underash – SOLD
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
These beeches are by the entrance to a local wood, and are the only beech that I have seen there (it’s mainly sycamore and birch, with some ash). I think they were probably part of a hedge, although the rest of the grown-out hedge line…
Continue reading The Fellowship
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
Four years ago, in March 2016, I found myself driving across Hungerford Common with half an hour or so to spare before I was due to meet some friends in the town. The common is lovely (even on a fairly dull day in March) and…
Continue reading Progenitor