I loved the idea of painting an animal onto a piece of wood that has lived and grown in the landscape itself.
Made from fallen and carefully pruned branches gathered from our rural garden, each piece is gently planed and sanded by hand, while preserving the natural shape, grain and character of the tree. I allow these qualities to become part of the painting the curves, marks and irregularities of the wood helping to hold the creature within its own small world.
There is a sense of both protection and belonging, as though animal and tree are part of the same story. Rook and snake are painted on Sycamore. A tree of strength and shelter, it carries a quiet sense of resilience, of standing rooted while the wild world moves around it.
Highly tactile and made to be held as well as seen, these small works seem to encapsulate something at the heart of Between Root and Star: wild creatures held within the wood itself, rooted in the land from which they came.