A little bit about my chosen themes...

I use monochrome a lot at the moment. Colour can detract from the form, or shapes, that I am interested in portraying; I like its simplicity and the challenges associated with the "extreme monochrome" of black and white, with no shades of grey. I do, however, often use colour in conjuction with monochrome and every now and then you may find me working in full colour.

Views walks and trees was an obvious theme choice. Landscapes have long been a key part of my work, something that is tied up with my love of walking in the countryside. It's where I find all the best trees...

My third theme was harder to choose. In the end I went for Storytelling, Meanings and Messages:

Trees are very good at telling stories. Did you know that? They contain a record of significant events that can be read from their appearance or, bylooking at the growth rings. They can also suggest stories to us in many ways. I'm interested in history and in imagination, so it's no great surprise that the story aspect is present in my drawings.

... but that third theme could equally have been:

Shape and Structure - this is linked in to the monochrome idea. I switched medium, to pen and ink, because of the importance and intricacies of the shapes I wanted to draw;

Ecology and Fragility - Green connection. We need to look after our trees, because they look after us. A tree is an ecology by itself, as well as forming a key part of the greater ecology;

Intrinsic Beauty - trees are beautiful; it's one of the reasons I want to draw them.

Calm and collected. Trees are calm things. People tell me that they find my drawings of trees to be calm. I'm quite a calm person. These things are probably connected.

I also considered Big and Bold - because I like to make larger drawings, pushing, to a certain extent, the expectations of a pen and ink drawing.