Downland beech - SOLD

Molotow acrylic marker pens on paper, A4 (21x29.7cm)

Another monochrome beech tree, albeit with a CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) sky. It makes it look rather cartoonish, I think - or is that the "googly" face that I keep seeing in its trunk?

This tree is part of a grown-out hedgerow on the ridge of one of our local downs.

SOLD

Savernake Beech

Molotow acrylic marker pens on paper, A4 (29.7x21cm)

There are many wonderful old trees in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire. Oaks tend to dominate the selection (they do get impressively old and gnarled), but there are other trees as well, including many beech trees. I encountered this particular example when I visited the forest earlier this month, and this picture is worked up from a photograph I took then (it was a bit cold for lengthy studies).

This is an exercise in the use of limited tone: black, white, and a middle tone (grey).  I used three Molotow acrylic paint marker pen colours for the drawing, deliberately keeping each shade separate and distinct. (I used a fourth colour for my signature).

It looks a bit like a lino print to me, albeit a rather complex one with two printing plates. I like cutting lino (and wood) to make a plate, but have limited patience with the printing process itself and have yet to master the art of registration (printing multiple plates / colours accurately to build up layers). This was rather simpler to do, and very nearly as satisfying.

Savernake BeechMolotow acrylic marker pens on paper, A4 (29.7x21cm)
£50

Winter trees

Winter Oak (detail)

Winter is the best time to capture the structural essence of a tree. On a bright, clear day, the branches are dramatically stark against the sky, the patterns in the bark are unobscured by the shifting shadows of foliage (and any undergrowth will have died back a little, affording better access to that elusive perfect vantage point...).

These two pictures have been created as part of my preparation work for the Artikinesis exhibition at Sticks Contemporary in Gosport.

Winter Beech (detail)

Winter Oak

A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper

£75 

Winter Beech
A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper

£75