1150mm x 1650mm

£4,500

In Northumberland there are many pine forests. I grew up near them and live virtually in one, so it’s been a subject I have grown up painting. They may be man made but can be hauntingly beautiful at times.

They are ever changing places, here we have the evidence of heavy machinery in the foreground, the watercolour is bathed in an angelic light, filtering through the canopy as it weaves in and out of the wood.

Much like the portrayal of the South Downs, this scene is a manufactured landscape. My intention was to allude to this in terms of repeating the theme of harvest; one of transformation. These woods are in many ways fairly soul-less, lonely places. There is not a vast abundance of wildlife, they are a strangely sterile habitats due to the limited and specific ground cover; a theme I have endeavoured to highlight. I find them to be eerie, ghostly places, the trees being doomed, the living dead, yet not in an uncomfortable way they are a very peaceful, still and silent.

An important theme again is the very strong sense of sunlight and shadow, the way the long winter shadow of a pine tree follows the contours of the ground has been a subject I have painted for many years. I remember as a child being on a train and looking out of the window, watching the shadow jump from foreground to background and back again and it fascinating me how this happened. A shadow will give form not just of the object it originates from but of whatever surface it hits.

To purchase this original watercolour painting or for more information regarding other paintings of pine woods feel free to email me at info@mjforster.com