Two Trees Sculpture

Two Trees Sculpture 03/10/25

I started the companion piece, the larger tree, at the beginning of October. The process, as I noted last month demands that each section be dry before you can move on to the next one. This lends itself to my working pattern of being in the studio every other day.

The link to the drawings is essentially only the notion of working on the figures as a pair.

Larger Tree 09/10/25

Two Trees Sculpture 09/10/25

As I developed the larger tree the relationship between the two parts changed as each stage was added.

Two Trees Sculpture 10/10/25

The two parts work together in a manner similar to the Henry Moore two part reclining figures but there are obviously a lot of alternatives. There is probably a case for saying any two objects that stand together activate the space between them to effectively render another form.

Studio Scrapbook 13/10/25

I thought about the finish for the two objects on the 11^th October, another idle moment when an idea popped into my head and I drew it in my studio scrap book. Subsequently I decided that the marks should be leaf like.

Two Trees Sculpture 13/10/25

I added the larger form to the large tree to give a better balance and then patched the flaps where the lining paper didn’t stick properly.

Two Trees Sculpture 17/10/15

Ending up with this. I’ve still not decided which orientation the two pieces should have.

Two Trees Sculpture 20/10/25

This is where I left the piece on the 20^th October.

Two Trees Black

Two Trees White

When I painted the figures I laid the base for two big drawings.

Smaller Tree (detail)

The pattern was a loose leaf carved into a sponge.

Two Small Trees, Balby

During the latter half of the month we decided to have our open studio event on the last weekend in November so a lot of time was given over to cleaning and preparing for that event. The two small trees were mounted and varnished.

Jackdaw 28/10/25

A few days out of the studio led me to think about the difference between trees and birds, given that all my work lately has been centred around the garden space and exploring notions of property and commons, it’s past time that the inhabitants should be asserting their influence. I’ve been reading two books in particular alongside this process, Daniel Eltringham’s ‘Poetry and Commons‘ and Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley’s ‘Edgelands‘ . The latter is a difficult read because of the ‘poetic’ writing style and the former a difficult read because of the academic writing style. This particular poetic writing tells you what you should be feeling about the text and the academic spends a lot of time telling you what is going to be discussed later.

All this to say I though about jackdaws and made a small model because I’d seen (in my head) one sitting on the big tree.

Studio 31/10/25

Studio, ‘The difference between trees and birds’ on the left and ‘Two small trees’ on the right

So these are a couple of shots of the studio with the small trees and the large two piece sculpture now called ‘The difference between birds and trees’.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The October drawings, including the 2000th consecutive drawing can be seen here

…and the September images here

There is a link to the previous month’s Gallery on each page.

Or you can go the Galleries page on the top menu

The drawings are posted to  Instagram each day.

Two Trees Drawings

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This drawing comes directly from the sketchbook in last months post Tickhill Road 28/02/2019. I photographed this on the 1^st September after several stages involving the removing and readding the central tree. The orb on the right is a vestige of the one on the left, an after image if you will. The point about these drawings is that the language developed in the smaller drawings, this one is 100cm x 140cm, forms the basis of the larger ones. The large one is a sort of culmination of the smaller working drawings.

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This drawing picks up two days later when I’ve painted the background, the white areas to match the correction from when I replaced the central tree.

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This one, three days later, when I decided it was finished and named it.

Two Trees Drawings

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This drawing marks the start of the two trees drawings that have occupied the rest of September. Using my usual method of mono printing to give me at least two starts, albeit mirror images, to begin the process.

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The sketchbook that inspired these drawings was made in 2016 and came to mind when I was making the Tickhill Road drawings. There is an obvious geographical, local, link but there is also an emotional link that I haven’t quite named yet.

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The set of drawings in this case were worked in fours.

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There are some on cartridge paper and some on watercolour paper. The watercolour paper gives me cause for concern because it so expensive when I’m making such simple drawings. Years ago I used to work the paper so hard that it wore through but it seems to come a little easier these days.

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The drawings are sometimes worked to the point that they are very different as they aim towards the sculptures and environments that will eventually appear.

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I started to make maquettes on the 15^th September and worked them alongside the drawings from Two Trees six onwards.

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The maquettes are built from the styrofoam wall insulation I used for the red garden sculptures coated with lining paper that I’d used as floor covering for earlier works.

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I chopped them about and covered the splits before I painted them with blackboard paint.

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I then worked them alongside the smaller drawings, all the time the larger drawing in the background was also underway.

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In these drawings I started to pick up some of the random marks in the mono prints and made them more regular as well as reflecting the roadways and other surrounds from the sketchbook.

Two Trees Drawings

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I started the larger drawing on the 15^th, putting in a wash to stretch back up over the next couple of days.

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I then worked it with chalks and Conte crayon over the next two weeks.

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I eventually added the white acrylic but it didn’t work so the next day that went out to be changed to the version below.

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I’m not convinced yet but it’s better.

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While this went on I was building a larger “tree” using the same method but letting the forms the styrofoam is in dictate the overall form of the finished piece. I decided the important thing was the interplay between the two forms.

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The disadvantage of this method is drying time.

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The piece, which will have a companion, is 140 cm x 100 cm x 65cm.

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It reminds me a little of the ‘Maiastra’  One of Brancusi’s birds from Romanian folklore, but there was no intent to copy that.

At the start of the month I entered the woolgathering video [LINK] to a digital showcase at Fox Yard Studio in Stowmarket and it will be on show for two weeks during October. So I spent a good few hours making a high quality version.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The September drawings can be seen here

…and the August images here

There is a link to the previous month’s Gallery on each page.

Or you can go the Galleries page on the top menu

The drawings are posted to  Instagram each day.