Finding Sylva: Art celebrating ancient trees and woodlands of Bristol and North Somerset

About

Ancient trees and woodlands are a deeply rich part of our historic cultural landscape in Britain, having been worked and managed since prehistoric times.This entwining with humanity has shaped and conserved our woods and their biodiversity in the past, but they are often poorly valued and neglected these days. Only 2.5% of UK land is now covered in ancient woodland, and it is our richest and most complex terrestrial habitat. We are so lucky in Bristol to have such rare ancient woodland and wood pasture to explore. This exhibition aims to celebrate these local treasures and help the people of Bristol build a relationship with them for the future by showing how noticing trees can give us a rich glimpse into a past way of life, and invite enchantment and wonder into our everyday walks. 

Suzanne lives in South Bristol and draws from nature rather than from photographs. Her detailed graphite drawings of trees take many hours to complete and it can be months from the start of a drawing to the completion, giving her time to get to know the tree, seeing it in all kinds of light and through different seasons. Capturing the sheer energy of a tree’s form, and how this form is beautifully suspended between order and chaos, gives a sense of how it is constantly evolving. She observes in detail the twist’s and turns that are the tree’s slow and intimate response to its environmental experiences. 

Sally paints with a focus on pattern and depth of colour to draw the eye into lyrical details of tiny things. Found twigs with a frond of lichen, curling cow parsley and a wind blown spring nest, touched with delicacy. These windblown woodland finds reflect her magpie like nature, love of collections and looking closely. Her botanical ink collograph prints evoke a sense of the miraculous in nature, through being made from gathered materials and the sense of capturing a moment in time.