Trees For Life

A little while back whilst reading a post on Jeanette Jobson's blog Illustrated Life she spoke about a charity fundraiser for Trees For Life who work to restore the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands of Scotland. A fellow Canadian artist now based in Scotland, Trevor Jones , was organising an exhibition to raise money for the charity by asking for donations from artists. So I emailed Trevor to find out more.

Trevor was looking for 140 artists from all over the world to join him in contributing an original artwork or signed, limited edition photo print in 6”x9” format, each of which will be sold for £45 either online or during an exhibition to be held in Edinburgh in November 2011. So far just over 100 artists have answered the call. You can find out more at Trevor’s blog , the deadline has now been extended until 15th August and there is still time to contact him for details about contributing. All the work is available to view and purchase here.

Below is my contribution, a mixed media piece. The trunks have been mono printed with an oil based paint, giving a slight texture to the bark and then worked back into with pencil. The land and sky began with a watercolour wash which the mono print resisted and then layers of colour pencil added which has given a more diffused effect. My aim was to make the background soft and less focused to give full emphasis to the trees.

It's inspired by one of my favourite areas of the New Forest. I love birch trees which at first glance look like their trunks are straight and true, I find the more I look the more I notice how uneven they are with their ridges and textures. I've enjoyed trying to capture the subtle differences in colour from one tree to the other.



Standing Guard
6x9inch mixed media
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec