TIM BAKER

Back in September and indeed early October I travelled up to Richmond Park quite a lot – as you can see from the previous drawings and watercolours I’ve posted. They were distractions from the main idea which was to do oils of the trees there as part of the Dead Tree Series, which I did two others but weather and other things distracted me. These are the last two oils in the series for this year most likely now the weather has gotten cold and wet.

As you walk into the park from Richmond Gate opposite the old Star and Garter Home, or via Pembroke Lodge you will pass this large fallen tree. It’s usually populated by kids using it as a climbing frame and families – I tried to do a painting of it earlier in the year but there was always someone picnicking or camped out there. Until the weather changed! It threatened to rain a few times when I was doing the first versions.

First painted yet not first to be finished was Emerald Green Twin #1, named after the infamously lethal paint and also the fact I had just gotten a tube of the rather safer modern equivalent and so used it quite liberally in these two paintings. I originally wasn’t happy with this painting because the framing was off, I wanted to focus on more of the tree, so abandoned it and immediately started another canvas. I’ve never done two oils of the same subject, let alone back to back so it was an interesting comparison of approaches and tackling the same subject in a different way.

So onto Emerald Green Twin #2, this was intended to be a similar approach to the first except it developed into a more abstract brother to #1’s realism. The first version got damaged on the way home – the scraped lines at the bottom under the tree where the conker is – and I liked it so I left most of that it when I came back weeks later in better weather and kept that part and just repainted the conker – which amazingly was still there!

It was when I revisited it I decided to not only make this more abstract, but also see if I could finish #1, which I did making that even more realistic to contrast with the magic realism and abstraction of #2. Also the nicer day made that one easier and more enjoyable to finish, now I had gotten the abstraction out of my system.

So I realised they are twin works and belong together – well until I do a third! Remember the Hollow Tree? Maybe this tree is my Richmond version of that!