Dead Wood and New Leaves

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Fellow artist Anne Gilchrist and I worked together for the first time during the Grown Together exhibition at St Margaret’s House, though we have long shared a fascination with Dalkeith Old Oaks and have both made work there for many years.

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The site sits within Dalkeith Country Park in Midlothian and is bounded by the North and South Esk rivers. The oakwood is grazed by cattle and managed as park woodland by Buccleuch Estates.

During the spring of 2018 we walked, talked and drew our way around the oaks, discovering shared favourites and introducing each other to their unique perspectives. At that time, the contrast between the copious dead and decaying wood and the vibrant green of the emerging new leaves was striking – two points on the complex cycle of woodland life.

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We decided to collaborate on a collection of ‘things’ to present at the European Wood Pastures: Past, Present & Future conference, 5-7 September 2018 Sheffield, run by UKEconet which I worked with on ‘Tree Stories’.

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Along with original artworks we’ll be presenting this new book, which brings together a selection of our art, photographs and writing made in response to the oakwood. Though we produce quite different work, we share a great deal in the way our art has developed as a kind of conversation with the trees. In the process of making this book and on our walks through the woodland, Anne has taught me to look down as well as gaze up, to notice the small and fleeting wonders of the habitat as well as the monumental aged oaks.

The book is available to preview and order here »

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http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/8907403

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How do I make my drawings?

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It’s a question I’m often asked. I do workshops and demos for groups but thought a timelapse video of the process might be an interesting way to share a little of what I’ve learned too.

So, the blank white paper is taped to the board, the preparatory sketches made, materials collected and it’s time to begin. First I make large gestures with a charcoally hand to quickly give the drawing structure and movement. Lively lines help to begin to define the big shapes. There’s a magical feeling early on in a drawing when the forms begin to emerge from the dust. I can draw with energy and excitement. “This is going to be a good one!” my internal monologue says. Then, gradually the drawing morphs into the ‘smudgey grey mess’ stage when it seems like it’s all going nowhere… time for a tea-break.

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However, I’ve learned to persevere through this – I know it will happen and I know I just have to keep going, keep walking away, looking through squinted eyes, looking at it upside down, all the usual tricks to help spot what’s not working. A few years ago I read on American artist Stapleton Kearns’ blog that drawing was like herding sheep – you should always be paying attention to the ones straying or lagging behind, rather than the ones way out ahead. So pay attention to the bad bits of the drawing, try to fix the things that are not working and eventually they will all catch up with each other and hopefully resolve into something ok.

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The end result of all that herding turned out to be quite pleasing and I found that I really enjoyed knowing that I could review all the previous stages of the drawing on the time lapse. Being able to rewind time has proved a useful tool – I won’t do it for all my drawings but I’ll definitely do more little films.

Here’s the video of several hours work condensed into 3 minutes…

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Into the woods

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It’s officially Spring, though you wouldn’t know it today with the horizontal snow, and the race is on for me to get back into the woods for some decent drawing days before the leaves break through.

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I recently bought some Conté crayons and spent some time in the studio playing with them to see how I might use them in the woods. I was looking for some softness and delicacy to develop in my line drawings done directly from the tree. From a practical angle I was hoping that they would be the perfect combination of lovely smudginess when I need it and stability when I’m transporting the drawings across the fields.

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Paper on board, ready to draw some ancient oaks after a drop of coffee…

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Happily, some of my newest Conté drawings made it out of the woods and into Time around trees last month…

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A selection of these drawings will be heading for the Buy Design Gallery when they’re framed and hopefully the wind will calm down enough for me to get a few more productive outdoor days soon.

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Time around trees inspiration

These are some of the trees which have inspired the works in my current solo exhibition, ‘Time around trees’, along with some quotes from authors and scientists whose books have helped me understand and reflect on what I see.

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Crichton shattered beech Near Crichton Castle, Midlothian

Here veteran beeches line a little hollow lane beside an Iron Age Fort and a neighbouring field boundary.

When I first found the site on a walk with a friend, one tree stood out in particular for its striking form, following the collapse of one of the main limbs in a recent storm.  Its distinctively separate twisting trunks suggest that it may have been €˜bundle planted€™, where several saplings are planted together to give the impression of an older tree.  Its surface is patterned with scars and marks from graffiti, barbed wire fencing and hole boring insects.

‘Which bits of our aesthetic or emotional consciousness do rot-holes and calluses touch. What deep-rooted associations do old trees conjure up?  Are they some kind of portal to understanding the deep relationship between wildness and time?€™

Richard Mabey, Beechcombings

 

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Dalkeith burred oak Dalkeith Country Park, Midlothian

These ancient oaks, in their rare wood pasture landscape, evoke for me the difference between a tree€™s lifespan and that of a human. 

Likely to have been at least 400 years old when it died, this tree continues to provide habitat and sustenance to the organisms of the woodland.  The bark has rotted and been returned to the soil, revealing the whorls and contortions of the underlying structure. It could stand for another 200 years, dead but filled with life.  As if to emphasise the point, a crow flew suddenly out of one of the holes in the trunk as I was drawing.

€˜…the burr is an excrescence of would-be buds rising from somewhere deep inside the tree like a spring… A burr may arise as a reaction to some itch in the tree, a kind of benign wood tumour.  What begins as disfigurement ends life as an opulent adornment.€™

Roger Deakin, Wildwood

 

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Hopetoun half tree, Hopetoun Estate, West Lothian

Before it was lopped, this beautiful beech by the side of the Bo€™ness Road was a marker in the landscape for me on a regular route near home.  Then one day it had simply been beheaded €“ perhaps it was deemed to be unsafe or diseased. 

The remaining stump was at once shocking and fascinating, as the removal of the branches had revealed the torso-like sculpture of the trunk.  The problems of drawing trees that I was struggling with then had been solved by the chainsaw, and a whole body of work was inspired.

€˜…trees are wildlife just as deer or primroses are wildlife.  Each species has its own agenda and its own interactions with human activities. If all trees were like the ideal, they would lose most of their significance, all their historic meaning, most of their beauty and most of their value as habitat.€™

Oliver Rackham, Woodlands

 

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Newbattle graffiti beech, Newbattle Abbey College, Midlothian

In the grounds of this adult education college and former Cistercian abbey, stands this single large beech on the banks of the South Esk. It has accumulated decades€™ worth of carvings, initials, dates and symbols on every accessible surface. The oldest decipherable date is 1945, perhaps because there were Italian prisoners of war held in the grounds and the house was used as barracks during the war. 

Coins are pressed into the bark along the tree€™s massive lower limb.  It€™s evident that hundreds of human lives have had links with this tree.

€˜To walk through an ancient wood is to tread in the footsteps of the ghosts of those who once lived and worked in the medieval and early industrial countryside.€™

Ian D. Rotherham, Ancient Woodland: History, Industry and Crafts

 

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Novar fungus beech, Novar Estate, Evanton, Easter Ross

I discovered this site on a family holiday and have drawn there in early spring for five consecutive years.

The Novar estate was laid out in the mid 1700s as a deer park and as a symbol of the laird€™s status. It has many great old trees, but the beeches there are special for me.

This solitary beech stands in the parkland wearing its convoluted crown covered in lichens, its trunk stacked with bracket fungus which is recycling the heartwood.

€˜… at each place where [the tree] has been bent or cut it has grown stronger, swelling into a callous like a human knee or puckering into a bump of scar tissue round the little star-cracked crater of each amputated branch.  Every one of these details represents a decision, a little setback for the tree to which it responds with redoubled vigour…€™

Roger Deakin, Wildwood

 

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Scone grafted beech, Scone Palace Grounds, Perthshire

I was introduced to this tree on an Ancient Tree Forum site visit in Perthshire.

Clearly planted as an ornamental tree, this beech reflects in its bark the battle going on between the common beech rootstock and the copper beech grafted onto it.  The join is unusually high, which accounts for the very visible bulges, bosses and scars, and which immediately attracted me to draw it.

€˜A known tree was a solid link with the past, an embodiment of continuity.  It could be welcomed as one of the family €“ or at least the family estate.  It could be appropriated as a trophy, a proof of clever husbandry, a symbol of ancient occupation or social standing.€™

Richard Mabey, Beechcombings

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A tenacious tree

This is pure indulgence – whilst looking at these photographs I can relive memories of a drawing trip here in early spring this year.  Ancient oaks, gorgeous light, solitude apart from buzzards and the occasional frog.  I’ve done a few 360 degree drawings of this tree but looking again now I think it merits a whole series to itself.  Maybe this is what comes next…

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The hazards of drawing outdoors

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It sounds idyllic €“ €œI€™m going out to the woods to draw today€ and the truth is that it really is, it€™s a very special thing to do.  If I didn€™t have those days alone with the trees there would be no art, since the place, the atmosphere, the wildlife, the weather all contribute to the eventual response I make on paper.  The sound of the buzzards above, a deer looking startled as it almost bumps into me, a crow flying out of a hole in an old oak at eye level, a strong breeze making the dead wood creak over my head, the intermittent rustle of a toad hopping through the grass €“ all these form part of the experience for me.

However, drawing outdoors can have its little excitements and challenges too.  There are the predictable things like rain and wind, cold and midges. And the bugs that insist on walking on my drawing and sometimes refuse to leave, sadly getting squashed as I roll it up.  Nettles can make summer drawing unpleasant. High winds mean dangerous conditions underneath old trees and I€™m cautious on those kind of days.

On my last outdoor drawing trip I encountered some very inquisitive cattle which threatened my carefully selected drawing spot.  It seems quite funny to think of a grown woman escaping from cows, but they can do you some serious damage, especially if they have their calves to protect.

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I€™d set out to do a full 360 drawing of one of the hugely impressive Dalkeith oaks, which will be on show at €˜Time around trees€™ at the Meffan Gallery soon.  I€™d come prepared with little tent peg flags to mark my eight viewpoints, a tarp to sit on, my board, and a three and a half metre scroll of my favourite Canson paper.  This was going to take most of the day so I took my time deciding on views, thinking about the movement of the sun through the day and doing the initial sketches.  Four drawings in and I was happy with my progress until I noticed the herd moving towards me. The calves were at the €˜bolshy teenager€™ stage of their lives and clearly up for some mischief, so I rolled up the drawing carefully, packed my bag and climbed over the fence. 

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They had a good look round the tree and over at me, then settled in for some leisurely grazing, so I went for a walk and eventually tagged along with a group being given a tour by the woodland manager.  After a pleasant break I returned to my now deserted tree and resumed the big drawing.

An hour or so later they were back to play, but this time moved much faster and more determinedly so I only had time to get the drawing and pencils to safety and had to leave the tarp and board.  

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You€™re supposed to put your arms out wide and shout to keep them away but they weren€™t having any of that €“ no amount of arm waving was going to put them off their fun. The youngsters had a great time tossing the tarp around and slobbering all over my board, while their mothers rubbed themselves against the tree and had a good sniff around.  I realised from the other side of the fence that I was witnessing an age old scene of traditional wood pasture, and wondered how many woodsmen had been held up from their work by marauding cattle in the past!

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I ended up hiding behind a holly until they got bored and moved on.  Ok, I know it’s hardly Olly Suzi and wild dogs, but my tent peg flags were soggy and trampled and my board and tarp unpleasantly slimy. Still, I was happy that my drawing remained intact and I managed to finish all eight views with the occasional glance over my shoulder to check I was alone.  I took my longest ever drawing back to the studio, cleaned off the bug bodies and trimmed it ready for the Meffan show next month.  I’m hoping to be able to hang it so it kind of envelops you as you view it – so I hope you can come and see it for yourself now you know its story.

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Broken oak tree

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Words probably won’t add much here, but just to give a little context, this is an oak on the Dalkeith Country Park Estate, in a large area of ancient wood pasture which was once a deer hunting forest.  The wood continues to be used for cattle grazing but is managed for conservation – this tree has broken in half very dramatically, but the dead wood will not be cleared away or otherwise tidied. Instead it will be allowed to slowly decompose and provide habitat for countless millions of other organisms as it does so.  Not to mention also providing both shocking and endlessly beautiful subject matter for freezing artists in the winter months. 

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Dalkeith drawing day

It won’t be long till the leaves are out and the nettles are up, so I’m taking every opportunity to get out drawing at the moment.

Here’s some images from last week’s trip to Dalkeith Country Park:

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A few warm up sketches and some hot coffee to get started.

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Settling on a spot to draw is hard when there are so many amazing trees to choose from, but I try to be strict with myself and just get drawing – they’re all good subjects.

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I make my drawings on a scroll of paper so that I can work on a decent sized piece but still transport it easily.  It does mean that I can’t see the whole drawing at once while I’m working, so there’s a kind of ‘consequences’ type of reveal when I’ve finished drawing from each angle.

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The finished drawing about to come off the board – I blow away any bugs so they don’t get rolled into it too.

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Going through them in the studio, reviewing old and new, noting what to work on next.

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Drawing locations

dalkeith oaks Oaks at Dalkeith Country Park

I’m always hunting for new locations with special old trees. 

They don’t have to be recognised as ancient to be interesting to me, but areas which are known to have ancient or semi-ancient woodland or boundariy trees are often where I find the most variety and history.

Organisations such as the Ancient Tree Forum and the Woodland Trust are doing a fantastic job recording British woodland and campaigning to ensure it’s protection. The National Library of Scotland has all its old maps available online so it’s possible to see how long particular locations have been wooded for.

Find my locations on a map here.

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