Stump #226, Monoprint, 30cm x 35cm

Stump #226 is a Gelliplate Monoprint on Daley Rowney Heavyweight Cartridge 220 gsm, 35cm x 30cm

this is an ancient, dead Pine Tree on the opposite side of the Dart from me in Kingswear; Trees here, & in Gallants Bower, opposite my Studio in Dartmouth, are part of my current group of study for The Tree Portraits series. This is home to a large number of mature Pine, Oak, Beech, Sycamore, Hornbeam & Ash Trees.

My Monoprints from the latter months of 2020 onwards were also further informed by the following literature; ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben, ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’ by David Wallace-Wells, ‘Gaia’ by James Lovelock, & Merlin Sheldrakes’s amazing ‘Entangled Life’, which expand on the relationship of Trees with Fungi (and other fascinating endosymbiotic relationships, such as Lichens.)
These books reveal the importance of Dead Trees, such as Stump #226, to any healthy ecosystem, and how they should be left to decay in situ.