Woodlot, Cumberland

16×20 on 140 lb Watercolour paper

I love trees (not quite a tree hugger, but close). These beautiful and beautifying parts of nature live on a different timescale than us. I’d like to believe they are sentient (I confess to be a little animistic). For a species that at 50 years old would be considered a youngster, we would seem like just so many insects flitting by, gone in an instant. Small but nasty insects, cutting down and laying waste for our own purposes.

Our understanding ebbs and flows, but generally is increasing. A few of books I have enjoyed and would recommend are

  • The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohllegen
  • Forest Walking by Peter Wohllegen and Jane Billinghurst
  • How to Read a Tree by Tristan Gooley

This piece is a watercolour study just completed (draft 2 actually – still learning). 

Stopping by these woods

Acrylic, 16×16 on gallery wrap canvas – $285

Beautiful afternoon sunshine when I stopped for this scene by the path. Nevertheless, the peaceful feeling in the poem by Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, comes to mind. 

“… The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.”

We need to stop a while, breath deep, look and listen before we sleep.