Landscape
The trees in this woodland are possibly up to eight hundred years old and a delight to find on a suburban street in Coventry. The woodland overlooks a brook, this brook joins another to become the River Sherbourne which runs through the city and beyond that to the rivers Sowe, Avon then Severn. The proximity to natural waterways was vital to Coventry’s prosperity when the region’s woolen 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 the effort input over centuries of management to caring and preserving so we and future generations can inherit gigantic ancient friends.
The multi story high wall of green shades formed at the start of summer, staying until mid-autumn, was the inspiration. I used impasto (heavily built-up layers of thick paint) to help recreate the tree’s bushiness.