‘Time made wood’
It’s a phrase that came to me early on in my tree drawing career and has been my guiding concept as my art has developed over the last 15 years.
This particular tree sums up my understanding of the phrase, encompassing the way trees grow and the way I see them, underpinning every drawing I’ve made.
The body of the tree is in motion its entire life, mostly moving extremely slowly but sometimes very suddenly too. Every shift or alteration, large and small, contributes to the form we see today, sculpted over centuries.
We are witnessing the myriad decisions it made over its lifetime, along with some that were made for it by the deer, the forester, the poacher or the passer by.
This oak in Chatsworth deer park is at the end of its life now and is wearing its centuries of change for us to interpret.