Beech

Uber Beech captures one of Britain’s most popular of trees.  The translucent nature of watercolour is a perfect medium to capture the brilliant sunlight reflecting around the work and settling on the bark of the tree.  The tension between light and shadow play an important role in this work as the eye dances across these two states.

The importance of the beech subject cannot be underestimated for Forster.  ‘It has played a fundamental role in the development of uberpainting. I have always enjoyed even revelled in painting trees. It would be difficult to compose a panoramic British landscape painting where trees are entirely absent.  These paintings conjure up very deep feelings and associations. I think we all have a strong historic even cultural relationship to our woodlands; to our ancestors these environments are native. Our associations may not be as strong as our recent past but we all know how our senses are heightened when woodland totally surrounds us. The mythology that encompasses the notion of a forest is strong in European and British folklore. The woods are perceived often in a very negative way, somewhere to avoid on your own and at night.’

‘The beech tree is one of our oldest and most splendid native trees and is one of our largest in terms of height and canopy cover.  There can be few people who can deny the magic of a mature beech wood, winter or summer.  A key aspect of the beech in uberpainting is the form and texture of the trunk; the attachment to the ground; the very tree-ness, if you like, of them. They occupy their own space in a form of splendid isolation, yet the canopy merges into one.  The stark contrast in the palette is crucial to this painting, the new foliage and the carpet of last year’s leaf litter. I want the viewer to be able to smell the mushrooms growing on the forest floor, hear the birds in the trees and the gentle rustle of the leaves in the high canopy. I wanted to portray the seasonality and dynamism of the woodland.’

‘In some paintings we delve into an endless woodland, tree after tree in others I have situated the viewer under the protection of the forest edge viewing as it were the outside world from within, the woodland as a sanctuary. I think this is key to my thinking on this subject, the solidity, the sheer physical size and strength of these huge plants their age, permanence and individuality is undoubtedly reassuring.’