Yoden (Rebirth)(Winter)

Based on sketches made at Castle Eden Dene National Nature Reserve, County Durham. Most plants are semi-dormant but ready to spring forth in late February in northern England. Some like the hazel trees are already growing catkins. In an ancient woodland like this one, all stages of life are representated and you understand that as you spend time drawing in such a place over the seasons that everything is interconnected somehow. In late February you hear different birds singing from various directions and distances which gives you a sense of the volume of the woodland even though the birds are hard to see. Beneath the leaf litter bacteria, bugs, worms and fungi are busy making a living breaking down the deadwood and autumn leaves even while the hedgehog sleeps. Sitting drawing in an ancient wood is a way to contemplate all this life going on and all that is about to break the surface into new life over the next few weeks and months. In the studio all this memory and thought comes streaming back to inform the painting and the feeling of such a place.
In 2023 this painting was exhibited at Hartlepool Art Gallery in a major exhibition called ‘Revering Ancient Woodland’ supported by the national conservation body Natural England showing my paintings and drawings of ancient woodlands of northeast England over the past 30 years including many in Natural England’s collection.

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