A close-up on the fascinating whorls and twists at the base of an ancient sweet chestnut trunk. When I first started this tree project, I knew that it could be huge, and so I set a limit on it. I would only consider trees that…
Continue reading Coalesce
This drawing includes the same beech trees featured in Epic, in a wider landscape and in a warmer season. While there is still a dramatic air to the picture, it is softer and seems appropriate for a fairy tale. The foreground suggests, to me, the…
Continue reading Babes in the Wood – SOLD
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
Pigment inks on kaolin-coated board, 11 x 14 inches. The row of hornbeams viewed through the crook of the end tree. I’ve used a palette based on secondary colours, which has an unearthly feel, echoing the odd angles and shapes thrown by the trees.
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
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
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)
Kingley Vale, a National Nature Reserve near Chichester in Sussex, is known for its yew forest, reputed to be one of the finest in Europe. The oldest yews are all on the valley floor, with younger trees on the slopes. The yews have, in most…
Continue reading The Guardians