‘Betula Nebula’, monoprint, pigmented render, tissue paper, pen, charcoal pencil, pencil and acrylic, 71x100cm

One-off monoprint — only one available

Those familiar with my practice will know I’ve become quietly obsessive about masking fluid over the past few years! Whether printing, painting, or laying down pigmented render, its removal reveals the most unexpected, luminous outlines — a process that feels both controlled and alchemical.

Alongside this has been a deepening fascination with the miniature universes of lichens and mosses that inhabit our temperate rainforest trees. They are profoundly otherworldly — and the challenge becomes not simply to depict them, but to heighten that sense of strangeness and scale.

In this mature Birch, structure begins to echo something cosmic. The swelling forms and branching tensions suggest a nebula — universal patterns repeating across radically different scales. The title draws on this resonance, borrowing from the Latin Betula while gesturing outward to the astronomical.

As with its companion piece, I used slightly fewer gelliplate passages than usual, allowing more emphasis on structure, layering and physical surface. The pigmented render and tissue paper build a tactile density that mirrors the material life of the tree itself.

Credit to Jon Ranger for the original photograph that I worked from for this print.