Holzweg, 2013

Forests are wonderful places yet only tiny pockets of them exist here in England. I often think of Britain, 7000 years ago when it was almost completely covered with trees & the vast hercynian forest that covered all of central Europe that the Romans recorded as taking more than 60 days to traverse! Only scattered traces of this remain with its most famous remnant being the Schwarzwald (Black Forest), where my mother was born.

In this work, nature is marginalised and petrified within the fenced off sections of the frame. The central triangle is made from a rubbing from an OSB board. It creates a straight track through this potential wilderness and points to the destiny that befalls most trees.

Holzweg means a path through a wood in German, but it has a double meaning as in taking the wrong path - the irony of drawing a forest with pencils and framing it in wood. At least it is slow frugal art.