Beech 2009

The translucent nature of watercolour painting is the perfect medium to portray the brilliant sunlight on the bark of the beech tree. This beech wood painting captures the essence of one of Britain’s most popular trees .

In relation to Überpaintings as with the Silver Birch, the importance of the beech wood painting cannot be underestimated. I have always enjoyed painting trees starting within the Northumbrian landscape. There are a number of local beech woods near to Hexham such as Leatah Woods managed by the Woodland Trust and Planky Mill a well known local beauty spot. Further afield I have spent time painting in beech woods on Epping Forest and The Forest Of Dene.

It would be difficult to compose a panoramic British landscape painting where trees are entirely absent. The beech wood painting conjures up very deep feelings and associations. I think we all have a strong historic even cultural relationship to our woodlands. This 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 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. 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 of them. They occupy their own space in a form of splendid isolation, yet the canopy merges into one. 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 paint the seasonality and dynamism of the woodland.

In some of my beech wood 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 then 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.