Woodland Light: new originals

Into the Light - new original monotype - click image for price and size details

What do woodlands mean to you?

I come from a family of very keen walkers and all my childhood holidays were walking holidays. We walked in many places in the UK - fells, mountains, coastal paths but my favourite by far were woodland walks often following a little stream.

There's something about the textures, light and complexity of woodlands that makes a profound connection to our souls. We feel joy and contentment as we crunch over dry leaves, touch soft damp moss and feel the rugged texture of tree bark. The muffling effect of the trees makes us feel far from the noise and clatter of city life. Then there's the quality of the light. When the sun is out the patterns of light streaming through the trees and dappled patterns on the ground are overwhelming in their beauty. The light illuminates the woodland in an ever-changing theatrical display. Do you connect with woodlands in this way?

Colour notes in my sketchbook for Spring Shadows

It was these memories and deep sense of connection that led me to continue developing my woodland series in a new direction. Up until now, I’d always ruled out shadows in my woodland work as just not suiting the monotype medium and my crisp, simplified way of working. This time I decided to embrace shadows, albeit in a simplified form and these first two large original monotypes show the results.

Into the Light (top) was extremely complex to print with 10 layers of ink (I think, I’ve lost count!) The addition of the rushing stream was a completely new idea that really gave the piece a sense of direction and focus and brought back happy memories. As I once followed my mother and father along the path of a stream, my husband and I now take our own children to enjoy one of nature’s most delightful offerings. I’m really pleased with the finished results and think that it’s one of my best ever works.

Spring Shadows - new original monotype - NOW SOLD - prints can be ordered

I’ve made a number of attempts on portraying bluebells in full bloom but this is my most successful yet. By incorporating a strong sense of back-lighting using single-point perspective, I was able to give the scene more drama. I changed my colour palette to incorporate a wide range of pinks, mauves, greys, blues and even orange to give the illusion of light falling across the flowers. In the video below you can see how I used stencils to create the tree trunks.

Birch Rhythms - new original monotype - click image for price and size details

Birch Rhythms follows a different trajectory from the other two as the pale trees need a dark background to stand out clearly. The fiery reds and oranges break through the greys that signify more distant trees and continue onto the forest floor. The trunks themselves contain many colours as well as the drawn black marks to give the idea of detail in the bark – not realistic but a stylised equivalent – see the close up detail below.

Detail of Silver Birch

This video brings together some of the latter stages of all three monotypes when I’m printing the tree trunks and details. If you want to see daily developments of my work, follow me on Instagram where I post regular “stories” that are visible for 24 hours.

If you are interested in purchasing an original please click on an image to see all the price and size details plus framing options. If you want to order a print on paper or canvas, use my order form.

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