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…
Continue reading Cernnunos -SOLD
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
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
Almost directly opposite the tree featured in Underash is another mature ash tree whose roots stand proud of the ground. It’s not so high up, but it is a very interesting shape, with thick stems of ivy twisting around it and exposed flints in the…
Continue reading Bindings – 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
Níðhǫggr is the dragon that gnaws at the root of the World Tree, Yggdrasil, in Norse mythology. One of the suspended roots of this ash looked, from this angle, a bit like a dragon. The dragon seemed to be munching on the base of the…
Continue reading Níðhǫggr (Nidhogg) – 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)