Original artwork description:

This scene is from a forest surrounding Le Puy de Gaudy in Saint-Geyre (Creuse) close to Guéret, France. I love being in these environments; it really quietens obsessive thinking. The Japanese have the expression "shinrin-yoku" which translates in a literal sense to forest bathing.

This is one of those paintings that was fun to paint. At its essence it's an abstract painting, and when the paint was laid in, it was in the form of notes of colour scattered across the canvas, which didn't read as anything remotely representational until the painting started to emerge, and the suggestion of tree trunks were added. Forests, trees, leaves and vegetation are so nuanced, that this 'simplified' approach seems like an apt way to capture some of that chaos that nature throws at the artist.

The painting has been left for at least 6 months before being given a final varnish.

Materials used:

Oil paints (Rembrandt, Old Holland, Winsor & Newton, Gamblin, lefranc & bourgeois)

Tags: