Introduction to the Vitruvian Tree

I draw imagined trees and mythical landscapes. Sometimes my landscapes are stoney. Sometimes the landscapes are burned. Sometimes the trees survive, damaged but still standing, with the stones alongside them. My work in this exhibition shows it all.

In ‘Vitruvian Tree’ I have drawn an old and majestic tree, undamaged by Man or Nature. It is perhaps my version of an ‘iconic tree’. I was inspired by ‘Vitruvian Man’, the famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, based on the work of the Roman architect Vitruvius, in 1 BC. 1,500 years later Leonardo used the proportions given by an overlayed circle and square to draw an ideal man. I have used the same forms to draw an ideal tree. 

I work in fine-tipped pigment ink pens on cotton rag paper. The papers are of varying textures and tones, the pens of varying tip size and flow. The final drawings are a detailed melding of the inks as they settle into and inhabit the cotton fibres of the paper: similar to the roots of tree holding to the earth. 

Exhibition Opening: 2-4pm Sat 9 March 2024

Opening RSVP please click here