I've always loved February. The trees, with their wondrous forms still bare of foliage, seem to lift their branches in anticipation of the surging life of Spring.
The above painting, sold a few years ago, was composed looking up from the woodland in the University of Durham Botanic Garden. The tree-roots ripple along the grassy bank and the light snowfall is similar to ours earlier this week.
I painted it on tinted Ingres paper, using ink, watercolour and white gouache, a technique I find particularly expressive for sylvan scenery.
Above is another painting on Ingres paper, painted at the same time as the previous image. The group of conifers, also in the Botanic Garden, seem to be drawing together to gaze at the February moon and waiting ...
I love this group of trees so much that I decided to paint the image again, this time on a larger scale using acrylic on canvas. This painting is not quite finished - I often like to 'rest' a piece of artwork, to contemplate it for a while before completion.
Ingrid Sylvestre - Durham Artist
