Claire Spencer - The Charcoal Forest

Recently, I re-discovered an article in an old copy of  The Artist magazine.
I recall saving the article because I found these charcoal drawings, by the artist Claire Spencer, so compelling -  I could literally gaze at them for hours on end. The drawings
were inspired by the Wyre Forest and two books written by 19^th century naturalist/philosopher Henry David Thoreau - The Maine Woods and Walden. They are based on his diary of thoughts and observations of the wilderness and nature, when he lived for a year by Walden Pool in the Maine Woods.

The first thing to strike me about these drawings is their dark brooding, yet alluring presence and strong sense of mystery, intensified by the strongly contrasting values. An amazing variety of mark making brings out wonderfully well the form and textures of foliage and tree bark, revealing the character and atmosphere of the natural woodland - graceful sinewy branches of trees appear to be alive and moving. Some ancient parts of this forest were managed over many centuries for charcoal burning, so charcoal is, I think, a perfectly fitting medium to use for this series. Apart from the way it lends itself so well to the subject, I think the artist has paid a great complement to Thoreau’s writings and to these woods by interpreting them in such a sensitive way.

Trees continued - Study of Several Trees

Group of trees 1 - pastel

Group of trees after
adjustments

I tend to feel that things can get out of control so easily when I use soft pastel, ending up in a powdery mess on the paper, so I had a bit of a battle to overcome my fear with this drawing (study of several trees) but after I had finished, I think it had helped to restore my confidence a little. I think it is potentially a good medium to convey soft tones and aerial perspective and I might even use it again, for a subject such as this.
Despite hours more work on it, I'm not at all sure I made much improvement to this drawing. Although enlarging both version by clicking on them shows up the differences quite well. There was a lot of light filtering through the trees from the left and I tried to depict this more convincingly but it now appears a little washed out around the middle section, although the light glows more in the background (lower right), so I'm pleased with that at least. Perhaps I went overboard with the white and grey. I tried to vary the tones further but somehow the photograph doesn't seem to illustrated this. The greens and yellows look rather too acidic. I can  see more depth of tone here and there but it doesn't appear to have a great deal of impact. Perhaps using a toned ground would have helped to give the colours more impact. I will try to bear that in mind next time I do a pastel drawing. What I  found remarkable was how dramatically the experience boosted my confidence  when I came to the later adjustments on the Still Life Natural Forms in Assignment 1.

Drawing Trees - Sketch and Study of an Individual Tree

1. I wasn’t sure what type of tree was in the sketch of the individual tree, so I took away a small branch to identify it later. With the help of a park guide and the internet I managed to ascertain that it is most likely a Cork Oak. The tree in the larger study is an ancient Sweet (or Spanish) Chestnut and in the third drawing in pastel they are Alder and Osier Willow, located in a wetland area of the park.

2. To distinguish each type I tried to use the most appropriate technique I could think of for the individual subject, closely following their growth pattern. For example in the final study of the Sweet Chestnut: to bring out the prominent spiral ribs on the trunk I loosely held the pencil at least half way along applying loose tenuous flowing lines and filled some of them out using the side of the pencil.  For the branches and outline of the trunk I applied broken light and heaver lines.  I used loose thin lines with the side of the pastel tip for the trunks of the Osier Willows on the left side of the later pastel drawing and a very dark brown pastel on the side for the dark trunks of the Alder trees in the middle ground. I made a conscious effort to look intently at the subject rather than the paper for the most part and I feel this has helped me, as it is so necessary, to pick out the individual tree type’s distinctive appearance.

Study of an Indiviual Tree

5. To select and simplify I tried to see things as shapes in the scene rather than as particular objects, which was not so easy at times. Constantly trying not to get bogged down in too much detail (a recipe for disaster) I blocked in the larger shapes, then the smaller shapes, again squinting often. I think it worked mostly, apart from the leaves on the individual tree (Chestnut) - I had a problem conveying these simply yet convincingly and I ended up overworking them. If  I was to do them again, or similar, I would be more mindful of taking the  time to study their characteristic growth pattern by building up with loose very light pressure in the early stages. One problem here for me was obtaining a 3D look and I thought I could solve this by enlarging the closest leaves more, while giving just a vague suggestion of the leaves further away. I put too much in at the early stages and couldn’t alter this successfully later on when I had realized my mistake.