I just wrote in the text for another picture that beech is quite a smooth-barked tree, but this one has lots of recesses, folds, grooves or whatever you might call them, so I should add that “smooth-barked” refers to the texture on a smaller scale than that of the forms seen here. That’s part of its beauty: the sculptural forms are not interfered with by smaller scale patterning of fissures and cracks as seen in species such as oak (which obviously has special visual qualities of a different kind), so they show up well. Oak vs beech? No contest! By that I mean that it shouldn’t be a competition: both species are equally worthy of our appreciation, but in different ways.

Details: Coloured pencil; 2012; 42 cm x 30 cm. Original sold; unframed print £50.

Included in the gallery Trees 1