On my last tree trip to Aberdeenshire, I had the pleasure of meeting up with BBC Radio Scotland presenter Mark Stephen to record an interview for the Out of Doors programme and Scotland Outdoors podcast.
I was there to draw the old alders in Haddo’s deer park for my current studio project, so after introducing ourselves in the estate’s car park, we gathered sketchbooks, charcoal and big fluffy microphones, then set off to talk trees and art.
Mark is hugely knowledgeable on all things outdoors and it was a real treat to spend a couple of hours chatting with him amongst the trees. As we walked he expertly guided our conversation, getting deep into the life cycles of old trees, their ecology, history and rarity in our landscape.
He was interested to know what attracted me to my subject and to find out more about the emotional connection I feel with trees. We talked philosophical things too – is a fallen tree actually dead? How might trees speak to us? What can they teach us?
I invited him to not just marvel at my newest alder discovery, but to draw it too, so there’s a section of the broadcast with the soothing sounds of charcoal moving across paper, geese travelling overhead and my slightly scattered thoughts as I tried to talk and draw at the same time.
He was rightly very pleased with his drawing, but as a teacher I would always encourage people to focus on doing drawing (the verb) rather than making a drawing (the noun) – we don’t need to bring our inner critic with us to the woods!
Mark posed such insightful and thought-provoking questions, the last of which I’m still pondering now – you’ll need to listen to hear my answer…
Listen to the full BBC Scotland Outdoors podcast here
Read about the fallen giant beech here
Read more about the Haddo alders here