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Woodscape V
Julia Sorrell
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The Planting of the Trees
by Alan Sorrell
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Scot's Pine Branch East Wretham Reserve
Julia Sorrell
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“An Artist amongst the Trees” by Julia Sorrell
The charging chariots
across the sky are but clouds; the knarled head of an old witch is but
an outline of a twisted tree. I can picture our prehistoric ancestors
sitting in a wood at night, with the trees swaying back and forth in the
breeze, with such stories materialising from their imagination .A
pleasant evening can be spent sitting under trees with a fire casting
shadows allowing stories yet again to develop about ghosts, monsters
etc. seen around them –so we connect to generations past!. Trees so
often cause a stir within us. Not many months ago the campaign to save
our national forests caused anger in people’s hearts with the online
petitions, arguments in Parliament and a Government climb-down.
Logically you could say they are only trees. No! They are our heritage
We remember our childhood walks, our first kiss leaning coyly against a
tree, the family picnic or just quietly reading a book with a tree
providing shade. It would not surprise me if the public passions ran
greater regarding this issue than all the modern gadgets we covet. Maybe
today we hanker even more for owning a private wood or having a woodland
burial than in former times, and the need to connect with the
environment becomes more important as our world becomes increasingly
materialistic and in a mad rush. From one generation to the next,
woodland is subjected to young people building dens, cycling madly
around, having parties or merely enjoying the freedom.. Woods cope with
this – they regenerate – the young grow up and lovingly protect the
woodland for their children.
I have been very similar
in my journey through life. Now I include trees as the predominant
subject matter in my paintings, finding the interpretation of them
endless – the shapes in wood can forever be re-interpreted. In Woodscape
V- an upturned Scot’s pine root allows the onlooker to walk into their
own imaginary world. In contrast, the twisted Scot’s pine branch painted
this summer, is a far more simplified image generating a sense of calm.
When I sit and paint in a wood, people cannot resist coming up to me and
discussing their favourite tree, and wanting me to paint it. I notice
that the public are all ages; from old men being pushed in wheelchairs
getting a brief solace from their now restricted lives – to toddlers
hitting the ground with a stick or striking a tree- trunk. What a
pleasure the latter get from this, realising their now stress- free
parents allow them freedom to explore in a safe traffic and gadget free
world. How valuable this is for everyone. Likewise I am grateful to my
father, the artist Alan Sorrell, for his love of trees which was so
often reflected in his Neo-Romantic interpretation of the world –a good
example being this painting “The Planting of the Trees”. I well remember
as I walked through his studio being called upon to model for the head
and especially the hair of the godlike figure. The hands are my
father’s, and for the trees, he collected a few small saplings from the
wood opposite which he had saved from being built over some years
earlier. I feel that years after his death, I can, like our prehistoric
ancestors, unite with him when I am painting in our glorious woodlands.
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