Usnea

When I returned to Bovey Valley Woods in May, I wanted to relocate the tree that inspired my print from last year, 'Lobaria', and create a second version. Being a total idiot, I managed to take a new photo of said tree without realising that it was the one I'd basically spent an entire week of last year looking at...

In my defence, my method of attack with these pieces has been to look up from the base of the trunk, making my trees look more monumental than they actually are. Admittedly, a cheap trick to persuade ones audience how important these beings are, to us and everything else that they support.

Anyway, a different view from a slightly different season. The light is more influential here, and the canopy, absent in 'Lobaria', is rapidly expanding and closing fast. Another few weeks and this trunk would have been almost completely shaded.

My techniques have evolved a tad with this piece. The bearded lichens in this one are rather more sculpted and worked into, and I'm becoming incresingly interested in using offset printing with gelliplates for accuracy and speed.