Brockley Combe Print

I used to have a studio near Goblin Combe in Somerset, England. I would take long walks through the woods there. To the north was Brockley Combe, where poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge spent many hours walking and hiking. His poem "Brockley Combe" inspired this painting. "Brockley Combe Lines Composed while Climbing the Left Ascent of Brockley Coomb, Somersetshire, May 1795 By Samuel Taylor Coleridge With many a pause and oft reverted eye I climb the Coomb’s ascent: sweet songsters near Warble in shade their wild-wood melody: Far off the unvarying Cuckoo soothes my ear. Up scour the startling stragglers of the flock That on green plots o’er precipices browze: From the deep fissures of the naked rock The Yew-tree bursts! Beneath its dark green boughs (Mid which the May-thorn blends its blossoms white) Where broad smooth stones jut out in mossy seats, I rest:—and now have gain’d the topmost site." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge I painted this work as I imagined Coleridge walking under the canopy of trees, the blue azure sky peeping through the leaves and the bird song on the crisp autumn air. The colors and almost chaotic lines of branch and leaf are my response to the energy of this place, where the breeze blows through and makes the trees dance. I hope the viewer hears the wind and feels the movement of the branches when they look at this painting. I've used my own method of pouring gloss paint over an acrylic underpainting to create the tree forms. As the paint cures, it forms bark like ripples and texture, giving the painting a touchable 3D quality. I then paint more layers to reveal the leaf forms patterns which shimmer against the sky. This canvas is painted on all sides which are 1.5 inches deep. Hanging hardware is included.