Portraits of trees

Trees have been a lifelong fascination for me. They live on a different timescale and make the passing of time visible through growth, damage, healing and the changing seasons.

I am most drawn to trees in autumn and winter. Without their leaves, they reveal their underlying structures. Their individual anatomies, cuts, scars and healed wounds are exposed, as if they are standing naked in front of us.

Their branching networks remind me of veins, neural pathways and lungs turned inside out. Trees give life and provide shelter, but they also age, lose branches and eventually die.

These paintings are about life and death, and about everything we encounter in between. The trees invite us to slow down, look up and notice the beauty surrounding us. The blue skies appear calm and open, but their meaning can change depending on where we stand and who is looking.

I combine traditional painting techniques with spraying and paint applied directly with syringes. By building the image line by line, I try to capture the detail, history and individual character of each tree.