Savernake Forest Woodlands Marlborough Wiltshire Pastel Painting
by Edward McNaught-Davis
Title
Savernake Forest Woodlands Marlborough Wiltshire Pastel Painting
Artist
Edward McNaught-Davis
Medium
Pastel - Oil Pastel On Paper
Description
Savernake Forest Woodlands is close to Marlborough town in Wiltshire, England. Although it is a managed forest in parts, it has large areas of unspoiled natural beauty. It is quite easy to get lost in this forest due to its density of ground fauna and tree foliage and especially if you wander off any of the many obvious tracks and roads.
And that is what my painting is all about. On getting lost. The metaphor of not being able to see the wood for the trees seems quite apt here.
The first time I visited I could not remember exactly where I had parked my car and so I got well and truly lost looking for it after an exploratory dog walk in and around the forest. After a time and in reality, a few hours, all trees started to look the same to me. It was quite a gloomy day too and which did not help with any navigational tips.
Looking under the tree canopies was quite spooky in places due to the poor quality of light. You could not see far. In my painting the trees are shown growing very close together as they were in reality thus protecting the ground from receiving much light or rain. The fallen leaves on the ground were being preserved for a time after falling hence seeing a variety of colour on the forest floor albeit mostly in different hues of brown; golden brown, reddish brown, green and yellow fading to brown and just aged brown.
Fortunately, I met some dog walkers after a few hours of searching for my parked car and I was able to describe to them some landmarks I had noticed upon my arrival. With some intelligent deliberation the couple who were walking their dog also, were able to point me in a direction and which eventually proved to be the right one. I was a few miles from my car.
At the time, I was living nearby in Hungerford but had only been there for a few days when I decided to explore Savernake forest for the first time and subsequently spent the many said hours looking for my parked car.
I stayed for another 12 years in Hungerford and I visited the forest frequently in that time and I did not get lost again. It seems strange that the next county I moved to, after Hungerford in Berkshire, was Cardiganshire or Ceredigion as it is known to the Welsh. Savernake Forest is or was then owned by the Cardigan estate!
I made this Savernake forest woodlands painting with artist quality oil pastel on special pastel paper and using rapid smudged strokes to build up the layers.
Uploaded
July 28th, 2016
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