CAPERCAILLIES UNDER SCOTS PINES
ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/RED OAK FRAME
SUMMER 2015

     We recently purchased a vintage Japanese furoshiki and loved the design on it showing two birds under a pine motif.  It made me start to think about my favorite pine tree—the Scots Pine.  Living here in the Pacific Northwest, a region dominated by hemlock, Doug fir, cedar, and spruce, pines are not readily seen unless planted by someone’s home.  My introduction to the beautiful Scots pine was gained while travelling in the Scottish Highlands around Loch Maree.  I was impressed by their growth habit that to me seemed more like an oak than like the tall, straight conifers I was used to back home.  I was also impressed by their isolated growth on hillsides with the loch and towering Slioch (the mountain peak that dominates the Loch Maree skyline) as the backdrop.  My experience teaching biology peaked my interest in learning more about these trees and I found out that what I saw around Loch Maree was the remnants of the ancient Caledonian Forest which once covered Scotland and much of Britain.  The Highlands of Scotland are a wild and beautiful place which draws people from all parts of the world to experience nature in all of its raw glory.  However, the truth is that this seemingly unspoiled region is a landscape mainly created by the hand of humans.  The old forests are long since cut down and the existing heather-clad landscape maintained to provide habitat for sheep and hunting game like grouse and red deer.  Forest plantations of (ironically) Doug fir and Sitka spruce are now grown to support the logging industry.  Fortunately there is a growing movement to restore the Scots Pine-Caledonian Forest ecosystem as it provides habitat for many rare bird and mammal species.  One bird species that breeds only in these pinewood forests also happens to be one of my favorite birds (through my musical interest in the Scottish band after which it’s named), the capercaillie.  Thus, thanks to that furoshiki and the memories of Scotland it evoked, I was inspired to create a painting of capercaillies sitting beneath the Scots pines whose habitat they depend on for successful breeding.  I have painted capercaillies in the past, mostly in a style derived from its depiction in the Book of Kells, but this time I wanted to paint a more naturalistic version of the birds and to show a mating pair under the pines.  The inspiration for my Scots pines, off in the background, comes from the enumerable pines seen while studying Japanese ukiyo-e prints and painted screens.  I also included a design inspired by the Celtic Revival entrelac of Archibald Knox with help from George Bain’s Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction (©1977, page 63) to stress the Scottish connection of the scene.  I made the frame out of red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction methods.   I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of charring and oiling the oak to finish the frame.

DIMENSIONS:          WIDTH:  30 inches
                                  HEIGHT:  24 inches

                                                               PRICE $585

VINTAGE JAPANESE FUROSHIKI

SCOTS PINE AT LOCH MAREE

Here is a short YouTube video produced by Trees For Life showing the beauty of the Caledonian Forest and the hope of expanding and re-establishing it throughout Scotland in the future.