Trees for Life Charity Fundraiser

 The Gatekeeper

6" x 9"  mixed media

Update:  This piece is now on the Trees for Life Fundraiser website and available for sale.   You can see it and other pieces of art as they are posted on the TFL site.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awareness on sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.


I am pleased to take part in the Trees for Life charity fundraising exhibition which will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The exhibition will open 1-13 November at Out of the Blue.  The opening will be on November 3rd. The initiative is spearheaded by Trevor Jones, a Canadian, living in Edinburgh. 

Twitter to the rescue!

Through the phenomenon of Twitter I want to track down 140 generous artists who will each create a 6x9 inch (16 x 23 cm) artwork inspired by the forests or some element of the natural environment where they live. I will be organising a two week exhibition and sale of all the artwork in November in the wonderful space at Out of the Blue art complex in Edinburgh, Scotland.

All money raised from this project will go to the worthy cause of restoring the Caledonian Forest supported by the charity Trees for Life. Each postcard will sell for £40 and, along with donations and opening night fundraising, we’re aiming to raise £10 000!

One of the many goals of Trees for Life in 2011 is to plant its one millionth tree! The money raised from this event will help the charity achieve this while laying the foundations for its ultimate vision of restoring a ‘wild forest, which is there for its own sake, as a home for wildlife and to fulfil the ecological functions necessary for the wellbeing of the land itself.’

A special online gallery will be set up to view and purchase the artwork. Links to each artist’s website will be attached to their work.

After a bit more tweaking, I will be shipping this painting to Scotland within the next few days.  Some of you may recognize the tree from a previous post done a couple of years ago of an old decaying larch tree on the edge of the woods in my garden.  The tree has lost limbs and bark, its fissures and rough bark show its age.  I think of it as the Gatekeeper to the thick forest behind it, old and gnarled but hanging on til the younger ones are strong enough to take over.

True to the theme of nature and trees for the exhibition, I wanted to go with as natural materials as I could. I used a piece of TerraSkin for the base, a treeless support made of ground stone. On this I added a layer of gesso, then Japanese mulberry paper that I tore for texture, with more gesso over those.  I added washes of watercolour that brought out the texture of the tree and background and used ink for definition and texture in the grasses.