Ian Sidaway
Winter Morning SW19, watercolour on Saunders Waterford, 141⁄4x22in (36x56cm). A common theme when painting trees is that of repetition, especially when depicting a stand of tress of the same species. Aggressive cropping splits and strengthens this composition. Although the leaf- and ivycovered areas beneath the trees looks complex on first viewing, it was methodically but loosely painted in layers, with masking fluid used for the finer grasses in the lower left-hand corner. I added the linear pattern on the peeling bark with a graphite pencil
The idea sounded simple enough: paint and draw trees in every postcode district of London, over a one-year period through the seasons January to December. A little research revealed there are 131 main central London postcodes covering an area of 241 square miles, with an estimated 80 species of trees. In all that’s eight million trees scattered over 142 parks and 600 squares, not including cemeteries or street trees. So it should be relatively straightforward, I thought – I would need to visit between two and three postcodes every week for a year in order to produce images.