Ancient Oak

Ancient Oak is a drypoint (intaglio) print developed from a drawing I made of an Oak in the grounds of Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. The marks used to render the original pencil drawing were influenced by the graphic art of 19th Century Japan and contemporary printmaking where the marks are reminiscent of those found in screenprints and woodblock prints. Producing this drawing as a drypoint print seemed an apt step. The image is a portrait of a particular tree where I have aimed to combine the analytical, by drawing as accurately a likeness of the tree as possible, to the lyrical, by exploring the poetic content of the drawn mark and the rhythms and textures in the structure of the tree.