53 cm (w) x 73 cm (h), conté and pastels on acid-free coloured-ground ‘Canson’ paper.
Date produced: November 2004
Drawn entirely on-site, on the side of King George Avenue, North Brighton. This magnificent little tree, providing an easily accessible spectacle of colour, lustre and form, like so many other trees, seems to be usually taken for granted as people walk past it along the footpath. I was surprised by the number of people who walked past my drawing and said something to the effect of “wow” about my drawing, seemingly without realising that the tree (right there in front of them) was even more “wow” - it was alive and real, moving in the free air, with insects moving over it and about within its foliage, with dynamic lighting effects, and could be enjoyed from all around in 3-dimensional space. As I worked on the various parts of this drawing, a number of problems arose. Quite a bit of experimenting took place to arrive at this result - things like the tones of the surrounding blues (very finely balanced), lightening the tone of the foliage back with blues, simplifying the background, etc.
|
