I’ve been drawing an oak tree at Tintern that would have been putting out its first growth in the 1530s, when the lead was stripped off the abbey roof. In 2024 its collapsing branches and leaning trunk, speak only of the dark winter days. The winter of its own natural cycle of course – but also the dark winter of the cold months when I drew it. The tree stands in flooded fields and when the water eventually subsides the tree will reveal its lower story to be completely hollow. Is there a dichotomy to be found between the hollow tree with its aching feet in the cold water and the body of the ruined abbey with its roof gone, exposed to the elements?
I made these drawings with water colour pencils, requiring wet paper, which in freezing weather was more a matter of managing ice flows on the surface than achieving the flowing lines that might be expected of the medium. The dotted character of these drawings came from managing this problem.
