I made an entire first draft for “Oak Eyes [3×2 Collage]” within one hour.

The Resonant Land

Does the landscape hold consciousness?

In “Oak Eyes” I have stripped away the expected greens and browns of the English countryside to reveal a heightened chromatic vibrancy, an amalgamation of ideas brought into focus.

This digital piece grew from two realities: the standing, living history of an English Oak and the exposed inner secrets of a large felled branch. By fusing these states through digital collage, I created a synthesis of the living and the repurposed.

Icy blues and blazoned horizon settle into a steady awareness, repeated into a 3×2 grid that beautifully echoes both film frames and pop art history. My subconscious naturally draws upon interconnected themes, like an artisanal builder selecting the finest materials.

For me, the work asks the viewer to sense a quiet guardianship, a calm defiance against habitat destruction.

Process & The Architecture of Sight

The image began with the immensely pleasurable action of photography in the field on my nature walk of 25th November. Six unique compositions, three of which have already produced artistic output.

Let’s give you wonderful visuals to picture the scene of my nature walk here, shall we:

This tree and nature reserve with all its wildlife has fascinated me as otters to the sculptor.

Image includes my size 13 UK field boots. Fit for British weather, so they are.

[sidequest #1 if you wish, for dessert afterwards: “James VI & I Oak of Meadows Midst”]

Did mud and soil ever look so glorious?

All nineteen feet and five inches in circumference, measured in 2020. An oaken majesty indeed.

Just look at that wizened, spiralling branch, mid-left. Lower-right my shadow appears as a hand or rabbit eyes [sidequest #2].

[further sidequests #3 and #4 for afters if you wish, one of my earlier sketched works “Rusted Cart of the Nature Reserve” and additional photography in Conservation – Local Nature Reserve]

In the meantime, let’s return to the digital artwork of our blog article, “Oak Eyes [3×2 Collage]”..

.. the first input source for my 3×2 Collage is the 1612 Oak in landscape, ancient and gnarled, holding its ground against the weather. Regularly enjoying the oft marshy, water-retaining field I’ve affectionately called King James Meadow (of VI & I fame).

The second input source is the cross-section topology of the manmade cut, fallen branch log, seen above in my photograph. Concentric rings record centuries of growth lines.

This hefty log itself standing exactly where I placed it some years ago, to prop up the wood-and-wire mesh fence; a fence since removed, perhaps for maintenance or to open up the two adjacent fields.

Through digital manipulation, I overlaid the cut timber onto the canopy of the standing tree. The dark central rings duplicated into twin “Eyes” to look out from within the grain. These bring life to the newly formed digital oak work – a human-like quality, a distinguished character.

Colour grading carries the imagination away from literal description. The central canopy shifts into an electric, icy cyan visage while the horizon is ultra-vivid in deep crimson. That reddish horizontal band feels like the passionate heartbeat of the earth. The high blues carry the cold breath of air over ground that seems frost-touched.

It takes the creativity of a painter and the technical precision of digital practice to turn two separate photographs into a multi-layered artistic work.

Visual Reading of “Oak Eyes”

The 3×2 grid transforms a single tree into a coherent, repeating assemblage.

Hollowed Hair: Above the horizon, two forearmed branches reach forward. The ‘Aristolochia gigantea‘s hollowed hair‘ is actually constructed from the upper-right cut infundibulum-like form within the fallen log!

Crimson Orange-Red Eyes: Despite the fiery looking colour of the oak’s eyes, the manner is pleasant and appealing. A warm, inviting nature for a certainty.

Icy Cyan Landscape: The flora and chest area of the trunk provide a sense of coolness — a perfect chromatic foil to the crimson eyes and blazoned horizon.

The Unfathomable Connection

“Oak Eyes” sits within a line of works where I coax an interconnection between the inanimate and human personality.

The work invites the viewer to regard the oak as more warmth than cold — a subtle inversion of colour theory and emotional reading. Eyes also serve as a symbolic oversight: the oak having stood for centuries, holding seasons, weather and human timeframes within its aged circles.

There is a protective quality here too — the sense that the land is watching us through the eyes of the tree, desiring everyone to appreciate its ruddy warmth and attractive gaze.

Assigning human vision brings character. The 1612 Oak is not empty or lifeless; it’s a living organism with a magnanimous, centuries-old story to tell.

What do you see in the gaze of the tree?