Wyming Brook, Peak District National Park

How do you capture what is no longer there? The Wyming Brook Nature Reserve has been devastated by a tree disease, phytophthora ramorum. Approximately 800 trees had to be cut down, mostly larch trees, to stem the spread of the disease. What used to be a dense forrest providing shade on a hot summers day is now open landscape with cleared banks, long distance views towards the Rivelin Reservoirs and Sheffield. I am trying to see the positives, but honestly, I miss the dappled light filtering through the dense tree canopies.

I have spent 5 weeks on artist in residency at MI-LAB in Echizen in Japan and have dedicated this time to explore themes of grief in my prints. This was time to capture the feelings of personal loss but also the collective loss. Depicting 800 missing trees through a visual narative. i have spent more than a year visiting the nature reserve, collecting new memories, looking for the new growth through planted saplings and new species of plants and fungi encouraged by sunlight bathing the former forest floor. The scars will be visible for many decades to come. For now here is a print with 800 pink marks (one for each tree) and the saw cut markes from one felled tree stump.

Mokuhanga print on washi.