Arbour
This collection was started for an exhibition of work at the Macphail Centre, Ullapool, in December 2014 and entitled "The Spirit of Trees". The theme was inspired by the work of David Young, who lives a few miles inland of Ullapool. He makes beautiful organic furniture out of the ancient and windblown trees from the garden of his house, which is the old manse of Clachan, Lochbroom. The contrast between the textures of the embroideries and the grain and polish of the wood made for a lovely, balanced, exhibition and we both sold many pieces.
This exhibition was such a success that we exhibited together again in December 2015 under the title of "Enchanted Wood" and in December 2016 under the title of "Arbour".
Of course, this theme is one to which I will return again and again, inspired by the myth-laden woods of Perthshire, where I used to live, and by some sites closer to home, such as the arboretum at Leckmelm, the community woodland at Little Assynt and by my own garden, which is full of brave little trees that are making a young wood of themselves. In the meantime, the gallery below shows a selecton of the work created for those early exhibitions and a few more recent works on the theme too.
Please click on each image to see the full picture.
Oak Tree Poem
I have spent some time over this winter making this large textile panel of an ancient oak tree, in response to a poem by Mandy Haggith.
oaks
eggcups propping up the pastry sky
now you're gone
there's nothing
to prevent
the clouds caving in
nothing to stop the fields flapping
This work is a bit of a departure for me, in that I used only recycled wool blankets, which had been bound up with leaves, boiled up in a huge pot over the bonfire and then overstitched. I enhanced the dye marks on the tree surface by using a soldering iron.
This mighty oak panel stands at 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres and will be on display, along with work by other artists using a wide range of mediums, at Inverewe Gardens in the spring, and then at Dundee Botanics in the summer. For more information, go to the Inverewe Gallery website page.
February 6th 2022
