![The Gone Forest](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/fi_gone_forest-300x121.jpg)
The Gone Forest
![Writing Shadows](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/shadow-writing-300x188.jpg)
Writing Shadows
![Latest Tree Drawings](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_1509-300x225.jpg)
Latest Tree Drawings
![trees01](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/trees01-1024x768.jpg)
Somewhere Between Writing and Trees II
![Somewhere Between Writing and Trees](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_1404-300x225.jpg)
Somewhere Between Writing and Trees
![Mondrian's Trees](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Scan-6-Nov-2016-16.31-detail-300x150.jpg)
Mondrian’s Trees
![Trees Triptych No.2](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/trees-triptych_2-300x188.jpg)
Trees Triptych No.2
![Trees Triptych](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/trees-triptych_1-300x188.jpg)
Trees Triptych
![A Walk in Shotover Wood](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/IMG_0571-300x225.jpg)
A Walk in Shotover Wood
![Trees and Other Projects](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/trees-compressor-300x188.jpg)
Trees and Other Projects
![Two Worlds](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/plugins/pt-content-views-pro/public/assets/images/default_image.png)
Two Worlds
![The Smell of an English Summer 1916 (Fresh Cut Grass)](https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/229/523389538_d6926c2e29.jpg)
Proposing Moments of Pastoral
![The Past in Pastoral](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/blogger/-LehIJ50xxnA/U-6Ji3S9ZjI/AAAAAAAABLg/xN_iJV8oFPE/s320/2363941537_e50b734dcb_b.jpg)
The Past in Pastoral
![The Lawn and the Woods](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/blogger/-Y6EHuJZ_cMY/VWzC2-tLyZI/AAAAAAAACwQ/-xDWshojhrE/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-01%2Bat%2B21.33.53.png)
The Lawn and the Woods
![Silence in the Woods](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/plugins/pt-content-views-pro/public/assets/images/default_image.png)
Silence in the Woods
![Silence as Other](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/plugins/pt-content-views-pro/public/assets/images/default_image.png)
Silence as Other
![The Gesture of Mourning](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/blogger/-8oAeJ1uIBF8/VOW4qz6onSI/AAAAAAAACP4/2B9BOfo99wU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-02-19%2Bat%2B09.29.17.png)
The Gesture of Mourning
![The First Line?](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/plugins/pt-content-views-pro/public/assets/images/default_image.png)
The First Line?
![Proxies](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/blogger/-hdmmiy4s5sQ/U_NlNcIawVI/AAAAAAAABMw/s1mTa-_4DG0/s400/2527043319_440bd484fb_o.jpg)
Proxies
![Chinese Landscape Painting](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/blogger/-zL9WCkjG9yQ/U-joBytHYZI/AAAAAAAABIw/DZpB8Tn9X88/s1600/yu-jian.jpg)
Chinese Landscape Painting
![Lamenting Trees](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/plugins/pt-content-views-pro/public/assets/images/default_image.png)
Lamenting Trees
![War and The Pastoral Landscape](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/plugins/pt-content-views-pro/public/assets/images/default_image.png)
War and The Pastoral Landscape
![Goethean Observation: Compost Heap](https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3791/12032543935_930e9ecb6b.jpg)
Goethean Observation: Compost Heap
![Absence](https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3020/2467932680_ac04de97fb_b.jpg)
Absence
![Paul Nash Quote](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/plugins/pt-content-views-pro/public/assets/images/default_image.png)
Paul Nash Quote
![World War 1 Serviceman](https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2019/2364854870_655fb656ca.jpg)
The Keening Landscape
![Quotes from 'Trees'](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/plugins/pt-content-views-pro/public/assets/images/default_image.png)
Quotes from ‘Trees’
![Trees](https://www.nicholashedges.co.uk/notebooks/research/places/auschwitz/images/rd3_birkenau_trees_02.jpg)
Trees
![A Backdrop to Eternity](https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2297/2184048008_aac33013f2_z.jpg)
A Backdrop to Eternity
![Redshift](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/blogger/-apTfEhZVyaA/UmPBS8OJusI/AAAAAAAAAps/rV6577v7Gx8/s320/DSC04925.jpg)
Redshift
Scroll Work
I’ve been looking at ways of developing work with scrolls and in particular, how to utilise the background of the scroll to compliment the character (the main focus of the artwork).
It was whilst looking through some old family photographs that I found one of my grandparents, taken at Shotover in 1952. This is the wood where I have been spending time recently, painting the characters for use in the scrolls.
![](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_9810_sm-1024x768.jpg)
Taking the photograph of my grandparents, I had the idea of using that as the background image, with two of the characters painted in the woods (see image above) positioned on top. The result was, for me, unexpectedly moving.
![](https://www.nicholashedges.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/scroll-idea-photo.jpg)
I’ve always been interested in the idea of the ‘nowness’ of a past event, and how, when we look, for example, at a photograph from the distant past, we can find details that help articulate that sense of now. For me, in the photograph of my grandparents, it’s the shadows at the top of the tree trunk. They point to the space beyond the edges of the photo – the sun, the sky, the canopy of the trees etc. and that sense of ‘now’ is further articulated by the characters painted on top, after all, they are themselves tracings of shadows painted at a particular moment in time.