The Watchers in the Forest is a very large original oil painting — 48 x 48 x 2 inches — showing a walk through a rainbow forest with watching deer. The painting depicts a very vibrant woodland path that invites the viewer into it and, because it is a large painting, does it quite effectively. The path leads through dark trees to the edge of the forest where there is a clearing that is so bright you cannot see what is in it. But whatever is in it, it is something you really want to be there. At the edge of the forest, with the light behind them, are deer and stags. They watch and wait as deer do. The paint is very thick and was made by building many thick layers of paint over each other over several months. The dark colour is not black but is a series of dark greens, blues, purples and magenta, which can be seen changing as the sun moves around the room it is in. The contrast between the dark and light colours makes the painting shimmer like a stained-glass window. This theme is one I come back to often, partly because I walk in a lot of forests and see deer in them, and partly because forests thrill me and terrify me in equal measure. I often feel I will find something wonderful on coming out of a forest — if I do manage to get out of it. It feels like life — part danger, part thrill but always interesting...
