Landscape
The trees in this woodland are possibly up to eight hundred years old. Surprising to find the woodland on a suburban street but made possible with centuries of management. The wall of shades of green formed at the start of summer, and which last until mid-autumn was the inspiration. I used impasto (heavily built-up layers of thick paint) to help recreate the tree’s bushiness.
The trees overlook a brook, this brook joins another to become the River Sherbourne which runs through Coventry city centre and beyond that to the rivers Sowe, Avon then Severn. This proximity to natural waterways was one of the main reasons for Coventry’s prosperity when the region’s woollen industry took off in the Middle Ages.
As well as being magnificent and connecting to our past, I wanted to draw attention to the woodland's fragility and increasing rarity. The effort that goes in to caring and preserving so we and future generations can inherit gigantic ancient friends. It would take hundreds of years for the likes to grow again.