When I originally planned to paint solitary trees I wanted to paint big. Previous painting projects, from Boundary No Boundary to Wakefield During Covid 19, used small formats, no bigger than 40cm x 20cm. Admittedly this was through necessity and it turned out to be appropriate to the circumstances.
To depict trees I wanted to be able to use my arms rather than just painting from my wrists and paint with bigger brush strokes.
Unfortunately, outside circumstances got in the way and the solitary trees ended up small, A4 size.
In April I was asked by the Westgate Heritage Action Zone group to look at green spaces in a tightly defined area within the city center. I immediately thought about mapping trees within that space, expecting there to only be a handful. After a long afternoon down alleys and across car parks I had mapped over 80. These ranged from small ornamental trees lining roads to mature trees at the edges of car parks.
To date I have painted 4 of them (I don’t intend to paint them all).
Lime Tree – Queens Street (27th July 2022)
Red Maple – Cheapside (28th July 2022)
Crab Apple – Smyth Street (12th August 2022)
Horse Chestnut – Drury Lane (19th August 2022)
(The Horse Chestnut is showing signs of damage which could be down to a number of factors. The drought has forced many trees into an early autumn phase. This is a survival instinct. The Leaf Miner Moth has caused a lot of damage to Horse Chestnuts this summer also.)
All paintings are acrylic on Fabriano Accademia 200gsm paper. Size 100cm x 140cm
tony wade 