In Memory of Missing Trees

In Memory of Missing Trees is an ongoing series of paintings of the shadows of trees. It is a reaction to the large number of trees needlessly cut down in Britain. The shadows highlight the absence of the trees by using one of the enjoyable and reassuring atmospheres they create.

I always paint on location and directly from life, as shadows are transient and constantly moving this has been a challenging endeavour and taken many hours of study before starting the actual paintings. The paintings in the series you see here are of the shadows as the fall on the canvas while I am stood beneath the branches on sunny days in summer and winter.

To capture the effects of the shadows moving and the light changing I use layers of glazes and varnishes which trap the light, reflect or absorb it, unfortunately this cannot be caught simply in photographs. I make the glazes and varnishes myself from natural materials which are as environmentally friendly as possible, the same with most of the paint.

The paintings are all of the same dimensions which is 1000mm by 330mm painted on linen in oils.