My third drawing on wood featured a Common Oak on oak wood. The photographs I used for inspiration were taken on morning walks around the Arboretum.
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| my drawing surface - raw oak with bark and burr features |
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| stage 1 - establishing distant tones |
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| stage 2 - establishing the tree shapes |
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| stage 3 - shadows picked out from several photos, I wanted these shadows to wriggle across the ground |
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| The finished piece, adaptions made, finished, gessoed and sandblasted Common Oak, 'Quercus Robur' |
I found this piece of writing shown on a sign when visiting the arboretum last week; I hope my piece of work compliments Wyatt's words:
"No writer could ever match the poetry expressed in the form of a single tree,
for it speaks from its roots, through the fibres of its stem, the shape of the trunk,
the turn and spread of the branches, the twisting and reaching of the twigs.
A tree speaks. It speaks of a hundred summers and a hundred winters.
The whole of the message is contained in the way it has grown,
precisely, to make use of what its environment has provided.
It states in essence 'Here I am, and where I am is what I am'"
By John Wyatt, from 'Reflections on the lakes' 1998
