Finding new inspiration in the old.

The quarantine has me reverting to my beginnings in art, deeply re-exploring my original love of pencil drawing. I feel like I’m going through some kind of diagnostic phase, reconnecting to my love for slow careful linework and shading in an effort to remember what it feels like and why I love the tediousness of pencil work; how might I bring this kind of careful draftsman approach into my work as a painter? There is a way to bridge the drawings and the paintings, and I aim to find it.

Something very interesting is going to evolve from this time in lockdown, I can feel it.

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The image below came about after laying in the grass one afternoon, looking up at the tree branches of a fir tree blowing gently in the wind. The previous owner of the land planted the tree there, it was his Christmas tree that year, and now it had grown into a large old sturdy tree

I was mesmerized by. the repeating patterns in the many branches, each of them unique yet adhering to the same basic pattern, the same basic proportions and structure. I wanted to capture the essence of those branches in this drawing and also added some fractaling pine cones. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

Fir Tree Fractal