Farewell February I will not miss you!

February finally moves to a close, and I’ll be really glad to see it go, with its days of grey and damply chill. The gloomy and cold weather has not inspired us to go out, and our exercise has mainly been housebound in Tai Chi and on the ‘walking machine’.

Off to California!

In December, while we were in Chicago, I sold one of my original drawings to a woman living in California. It’s the A3 version in the range of drawings of the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest done last summer. Kindly she sent me a photo of the drawing hanging on her wall, among other art works she has collected.

It’s so rewarding to know that my work is appreciated by others, even though I do enjoy doing it for its own sake.

Greek Olive

I have also shown my work in two exhibitions at the Fronteer Gallery in Sheffield. The Fronteer Gallery is in the centre of the city, in a little collection of workshops, and their exhibitions attract a wide and interested audience. I Hope they continue to mount successful shows.

The first show was of postcard sized works for which I drew a special work of a Greek olive.

The Great Greginog Oak; Powys

The second show was ‘Meet the Locals’ for local artists, and for this I entered a drawing of the Greginog Oak in Powys, a great oak that we met last autumn on a wet day, across a wet field, deep in a wet wood, standing proud without a name board or other information of its majesty, and found almost by chance after skimpy directions from the coffee bar staff.

During January and February, one benefit of the awful weather was that there was no temptation to work in the garden or go for regular long walks. We did spend a few lovely days in Stratford on Avon for Hamlet (the town otherwise shut down for the winter) visiting Baddesley Clinton (to follow Phill’s interest in The Gunpowder Plot), and Shugborough Estate (to see the yew tree with the greatest girth in Europe, which turned out to be a surprising circular hedge with no apparent trunk!). Hunting for ancient trees has become a bit of a challenge, taking us to places we would otherwise miss.

On one of the rare dry days, we went to one of our favourite places, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and were rewarded with a torrent of snowdrops falling down the woodland banks to the water of the Top Lake, and hundreds, no, thousands of daffodil leaves spearing though the dead leaves and spiky brambles, a promise of a coming golden flood.

Between these outings I have concentrated on three larger drawings trying to get closer to the texture of bark and leaves:

Ancient Olive

Queen Elizabeth 1st Oak

During January I made two A3 versions of previous A4 ‘Close Encounters with Ancient Trees’ - The Ancient Greek Olive, met on a hot walk on the Peloponnese, and the rear view of the Queen Elizabeth 1st Oak, another of the great trees that continue to survive with little help from humans, which we found after a long wet signpost-less walk in Cowdrey Park.

Re-drawing a subject is a lovely activity, like visiting an old friend, and upping the scale gives an extra edge to my concentration.

During February I have concentrated on capturing the shady, complex structure of a

hundred-year-old, Moreton Bay Fig we met in Balboa Park, San Diego.

Representing this century-old tree, with its massive trunk, huge root structure, and dense, dark canopy of shiny, evergreen leaves was a totally different challenge from the familiar structures of our native oaks, limes and beeches. It is now finished, and this time, I have remembered to take photos at regular stages of drawing.

This winter, I have been able to hole up at the dining room table which I’ve taken over for drawing while we work on adapting the studio for easier access and more flat surfaces. One night I had an inspiration that moving a table into the studio would be ideal - and I knew where there was one! A huge and heavy ash dining table (one of the first pieces of furniture we ever bought) has had a place in every home we have lived in since, until with its legs removed it became a headboard in the spare room. I was pretty sure that, with a bit of rearrangement and a good clear out, it would fit in the studio, and, with careful measuring and both of us doing the manhandling, the table did fit! Now back on its legs it gives me a big level surface for drawing, framing or other activities. I now need to clear out the rest of the room!

So I now look forward to next month, to the flood of daffodils, a visit to London and the sunshine pouring through our windows, waking our trees and warming our backs as we walk.