Helen Elizabeth Kuumbi |Artist| Cornwall
Through the Trees
Through the Trees is a body work celebrating ancient trees and woodland, set in my local community woodland - Pigshill and Clarrick woods. Initially I set out to draw a series of portraits of trees. These pen and ink portraits serve to capture the character of the individual trees as their growth was shaped by their environment.
However, I was not satisfied with just drawing trees; so I got in touch with a local community woodland and started volunteering. I spent more time working in the woods; my art project became multi-dimensional and immersive. I have since completed a course in forestry and feel I have only just scratched the surface in understanding the multi-faceted aspects of our native trees and woodland.
Gallery
The woodland is layered; from the canopy trees to the stratified soil. The paint of my canvas is layered and exposed; forms and shaped emerge from the initial washes, drips grow into trees.
I wanted to subvert the idea of the freedom of the open landscape. The dark vertical stems of the trees evoke notions of bars and oppression. I painted from the perspective of the woods . They gaze out over the human-altered landscape where they have been denied, relegated to the steep hillside but ready to march and recolonise.
Ink making
I experimented with how I could use the resources of the wood in my artwork. I experimented with making my own ink from components in the leaf litter; nuts, bark, twigs and wasp galls.
Ancient Woodland
Ancient woodlands are the remnants of primary woodlands, surviving pockets in a landscape converted to agriculture millennia ago, usually on steep hillsides and on terrain where farming was not viable. They are the last vestiges of specialist woodland communities that cannot survive outside the unique environment provided by the woodlands. The woodland is far more than the trees; it is a complex interaction of all species within.