Tree portraits

I wanted to do a series of ‘portraits’ of trees. Not just studies but pictures that reveal a little of the ‘life’ of a tree. Some of the trees around us are more than a thousand years old! As well as recording the features of each tree, I’ve tried to incorporate something of their stories (mostly real but some imagined) be it a map location in the branches, a hangman’s noose (!), travellers tales or their place in secret trysts. Also by choosing to work in pencil, it means I can’t rely on colour to flavour things too much. I like the economy of the graphite. The on-going series of works are each 50 x 70 cm, unframed.