Like many trees growing on the steep cliffs and banks of the sunken road, this ash has extended its root system sideways. The sturdiness of those roots and the way that they disappear into fissures in the bedrock is remarkable and tells of adaptability and…
Continue reading Lateral
I love the twist that sweet chestnut develops as it grows: an elegant russet swirl of a tree, here set off beautifully by the cool lines of its silver birch partner. This is a picture that couldn’t not be made: colour and form and movement…
Continue reading Vortex -SOLD
A narrow, single track road, lower than the fields it travels through, has steep, cliff-like sides, taller than a car, taller than a person. In many places, the pale, chalky bedrock is exposed. Trees grow atop these sides and their roots either delve through fissures…
Continue reading Firmament
This multimasted grown-out hedge looms above a sunken road from its farmyard setting. Someone has added a car tyre, and to my eye this is a porthole to the tree’s dream: to sail the high seas! Galleon Indian ink on kaolin-coated board, 16″ x 12″…
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Indian ink on kaolin-coated board, 16″ x 12″ Hornbeams in Sandleford Wood, Greenham Common.
I have recently developed a fondness for the hornbeam, a tree that is native to southern Britain. They don’t seem to be very common on the Hampshire/Berkshire borders, but I have found a few places where they grow. Strangely, nearly every local hornbeam seems to…
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Each of these 6″ square panels depicts a man-made birdhouse, or nest box, positioned in a tree. The titles are taken from stereotypical estate agent descriptions. To date, there are eight birdhouses: They will be available for £120 each, framed.
This wonderful ash may once have been part of a hedge along the side of the holloway, or sunken road. The tree has grown significantly out of the hedge line, and one of its boughs stretches across the path, such that walkers must duck under…
Continue reading Flint
Cernunnos, the horned one, is the Celtic god of the forest. Resplendent in autumn’s riches, this lordly beech seems a worthy successsor, high on the slope with its heavy, curled antler-branches. Beech frequently grows fabulous shapes and it is to emphasise these that I use…
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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