Inspired by a very old and wide knarled tree with a door that I photographed back in the summer this drawing has geese coming around to visit their friend who lives in the tree.

11×8 inch drawing of an old tree with geese

Trouble is, she wasn’t expecting them and has nothing in to give them - hence the slightly perplexed look on her face.I enjoyed using soft pencil shading to form the knarled door surround and other parts of the tree.Here is a photo of the actual tree and door - isn’t it fab? It is at Hampton Court Castle and Gardens in Hereford and I went there last year with my friend Anne for a day out. As I photographed it then I envisaged it becoming part of a drawing but of what I didn’t know.I love fairytales and the idea of animals living in trees (which they do but not always with front doors and brass door knobs). A great book about the use of fairytales in cultures is The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettleheim.

This may become a watercolour. There are parts of the drawing where I feel it is a bit ragged such as the background geese and I had to try and judge the scale of them as I drew as I was working from all different sizes of geese from my photos.

Here are the geese I used which again I took photos of over 2 years ago not knowing what they would be used for. I just loved their shapes and forms at the time.With this drawing I loved being able to ad lib bits like adding this whimsical window which wasn’t in the actual tree.