The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
2024-02-03
A real-life woodland in Dorset, England, evokes imagery of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.Continue Reading
The Miracle of Berriedale
2021-10-26
A visit to Britain’s most northerly natural woodland on the Isle of HoyContinue Reading
Glen Finglas in autumnal glory
2019-10-12
Last week, I visited Glen Finglas. It was my first visit and I was taken aback by the beauty of this area in The Trossachs National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. Continue Reading
Long-term photomonitoring in Piles Copse
2019-06-22
An update to my long-term photomonitoring project of two trees at Piles Copse on Dartmoor, first noted in a publication in 1922.Continue Reading
An English Rainforest
2019-06-21
Nestling among the barren wilderness of Dartmoor is one of three rare wild woods. Piles Copse is a woodland mainly comprising pedunculate oak Quercus robur. The trees, festooned with mosses and lichens, are rich in biodiversity. It is an English rainforest, and a relic of woodland which once covered much of the hilly region.Continue Reading
A visit to Westonbirt arboretum
2013-05-31
The authors have been searching for a few elusive botanical specimens to illustrate for The New Sylva. Yesterday we visited one of the best locations for any tree hunter: Britain’s national arboretum at Westonbirt, in Gloucestershire, which features some 2,500 different tree species. We required samples from a number ofContinue Reading
Time lapse film of a drawing in the making for The New Sylva
2013-04-15
Time lapse film of artist Sarah Simblet working on a drawing for The New Sylva book. Made from 600 photographs taken over the course of 6 hours. The drawing is of a stand of sugi or Japanese red cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) growing in Brechfa Forest Gardens, Wales.Continue Reading
Visit to a forest of the future
2013-04-13
There remain many botanical parts of trees to be drawn and a few whole trees to be depicted by Sarah Simblet, yet a forest visited this week by the authors will be one of the last whole treescapes to feature in The New Sylva. The authors visited Brechfa Forest GardensContinue Reading
Drawing a venerable ash
2013-03-16
The authors visit the ash tree chosen to feature as in The New Sylva. Working in the rain …Continue Reading
Birch in the Scottish Highlands
2012-12-07
Day two of our Scottish drawing expedition took us to the southern shore of Loch Rannoch. We were in search of a treescape that would enable us to feature birch and water together. We had a specific place in mind for where the drawing will feature in the book. TheContinue Reading
Scots Pine in the Black Wood of Rannoch
2012-12-06
Yesterday our Scottish Drawing Expedition for The New Sylva got underway. In search of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) we had travelled to one of the last remaining and best examples of Caledonian Pinewood: the Black Wood of Rannoch, in Central Scotland. High above Loch Rannoch, on an undulating heather-clad ridge,Continue Reading
A Scottish drawing expedition
2012-11-17
The authors are very much looking forward to an expedition to Scotland to capture some of the nation’s most spectacular trees and forestscapes. In December we will be spending four days researching and drawing various subjects, including the iconic Caledonian pinewood forests. We will post news and pictures of progressContinue Reading
Deep in close-to-nature forestry
2012-10-03
Earlier this week the authors visited Stourhead (Western) Estate in Wiltshire to study and draw a treescape in one of Britain’s most progressively-managed woodlands.Continue Reading
Drawing the box woodland at Chequers
2012-06-16
Earlier this week the authors visited a very unusual and special woodland. Lying at the heart of the UK Prime Minister’s official country residence at Chequers is a woodland of box Buxus sempervirens. Box is known to many as a small shrub that is used in finely clipped hedges andContinue Reading
On the hunt to capture England’s last remaining mature elm trees
2012-04-06
The authors of The New Sylva recently travelled to East Sussex on the hunt to find some of England’s last remaining mature elm trees.Continue Reading
