Tree Body Language revisited

[By Robyn Bauer]   Many of my friends have responded to the news of me teaching an activity called “The Body Language of Trees” by alerting me to every possible interesting tree in Brisbane! There are some wonderful potential locations that I would never have though of without such enthusiastic help!

My list of possible trees grows daily, – pun intended!

Powerline recovery attempt after severe pruning. Drawn from the car, note windscreen wipers.

One such area is a street in Brisbane’s Newmarket called Edmonstone Street, and of the hundreds of trees it contains, every one has some distortion or adaptation to the actions of humankind which of course is my overriding interest.

I have started a dedicated “tree book” which is a lovely Kunst & Papier item which I won at the USk Singapore Symposium in 2015. It has beautiful smooth paper which is perfect for charcoal.

Also in preparation for my teaching, when I read art books on techniques etc, I immediately flip to any section on trees. I must say though that I disagree with a lot of what I have read, such as “choose a good healthy specimen” or “find one that is well balanced”.

My advice would be the opposite.

Find one that has a story to tell!

Note the texture close up, and who would believe this branch configuration?

These two looked like dark and fair twins having a conversation about the intrusion of the power-lines.

This is a more rounded specimen as it has space around it.

Botanic gardens showing a few cultivated specimens.