Deep in the Woods

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

For quite possibly the first time since TOoT began, a little al fresco drawing has taken place (at least of a bona fide outdoors subject, recalling that one of the 'roadkill’ flattened cans was drawn one fine morning whilst sitting out in & enjoying the sunshine), making an initial exploratory foray in the extensive woodland to be found beyond the rear boundary of the Bungalow, a rather fabulous walking resource that one hopes might also inspire creatively.

The main attraction in terms of raw material from which to produce drawings is the presence of a mixture of, primarily, Corsican Pine & also substantial numbers of Japanese Larch as planted in rows upon the site of a former quarry, with the trees’ lovely tall, straight trunks & off-shooting branches forming a firm & fine structure of verticals & horizontals (well, -ish), as might be appreciated from the small selection of photographs below, although such a mechan-aesthetically ‘distanced’ view offers no real sense of the experience of being within the woods, amongst the towering trees, whose cumulative presence looms dense and darker than appears in the images.

One would hope, therefore, that, should the drawings progress, should the subject matter’s potential be realised, such might come to be communicated – the initial drawing being merely a gentle toe in the water, as it were, of interest in that the mark-making technique & process became influenced by the forms & scene observed as the drawing progressed.