VOYSEY’S TREE
ACRYLICS ON RED CEDAR W/ RED OAK FRAME 
(SPRING 2012)

     In late March, as I was flying home from a family visit to Pittsburgh, I sketched a triptych frame that I wanted to use for my next project.  I  wanted it’s shape to resemble a kimono much like the ebonized writing desk C.R. Mackintosh designed for Hill House in 1903-1904 (see Arts and Crafts Furniture by John Andrews, ©2005, page 159).  So the Mackintosh-inspired frame was the driving force behind my design.  I decided to paint a “Tree of Life” design incorporating three sisters (the three Graces?) within its Northwest-Celtic structure to be enclosed by the frame.  I recently read Wendy Hitchmough’s book on British Arts & Crafts architect/designer C.F.A. Voysey (©1995) and loved one of Voysey’s decorative tree designs, probably intended for wallpaper or some textile (see page 191).  I planned to use his curling branches for my tree, and thus the title for my piece.  The tree was to be a blend of Northwest Coast Native, Celtic, and Voysey design elements and within it three women would form the trunk and extended branches of the tree.  I turned to Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh for inspiration for my three sisters as I have always loved her women.  Macdonald’s “Opera of the Sea” was used as the cover art for Jude Burkhauser’s 1990 book, Glasgow Girls: Women in Art & Design 1880-1920 (also shown on page 95), and her faces captured my imagination.  Finally, I give credit to one of my favorite designers, Archibald Knox.  His entrelac designs on Liberty metalwork are the pinnacle of the Celtic revival in Britain. I was inspired by a silver and enamel vase (model 2242) made by Liberty in 1903 and I used Knox’s influence to design the base of my tree (see Stephen A. Martin’s Archibald Knox ,©2001, page 182).  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:    47.75 inches
                           HEIGHT:  34.75 inches

                                                               PRICE $1,050

Gary Giovane
La Conner, WA
gioart13@yahoo.com