Sketchbook Items (4)

I've recently returned from a holiday visiting family down in South Wales which included a few days excursion  on the Isle of Wight. Just little more than a hundred yards from the house in South Wales there is a path that leads into an oak forest where many of the trees have twisted into fantastical shapes making the place look like a set for a "Lord of the Rings" or "Hobbit" film. Most of the trees are stunted and moss covered sessile oaks which I think established themselves on  the embankments of a defunct railway  that ran from a long-gone coal mine towards Merthyr Tydfyl. These trees have grown seemingly unmolested for years. There is evidence of coppicing along the main path which is now a cycleway.Recently the area has been designated as a park. Parc Cwm Darran.

           

                 Twisted oaks. Graphite drawings tinted with water-colour pencils.

Also some trees on the skyline. 6B pencil drawing.

Not forgetting some work done at St.Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight.

Various pencils: 0.7 mm, 2.0 mm and 3 mm leads ranging from B to 4B.