Majestic Wych Elm

The visual arts need to grow, flourish and be an intrinsic part of the Scottish Highlands again.

For many years, since moving from Australia to Scotland, trees have always been a central focus for my imagery. This majestic Wych Elm stands in the centre of Beauly town, guarding the entrance to the ancient Priory ruins. Dated to be over 800 years old, it has now been struck down by Dutch Elm Disease; hanging onto life, only three percent of the tree is alive.

To me this tree resonates with our own humanity, symbolic with our own time of living/passing and the way we treat our natural world.

The Highlands is changing at a fast pace. It is pulled and stretched as a commodity for tourism and often labelled as sublime ‘wild landscape'. People have lived and worked on this land for thousands of years and it has a very strong sense of traditional cultures: music, the Gaelic language and dialects.

The visual arts need to grow, flourish and be an intrinsic part of the Scottish Highlands again.

Beauly

I am always on the lookout for ‘new tree finds’ to draw and depict. Much focus and research has been carried out on the giant heritage Sycamore tree in the heart of the Beauly Priory grounds. It was almost ignored.

This tree has witnessed 800 years of human activity; from the founding of the priory by the Valliscaulian Order in 1230, the Reformation, a visit by Mary Queen of Scots, medieval market town to present day fast moving life.

At the time I started to draw the Wych Elm, Historic Environment Scotland had just 3-D scanned this tree; its obituary and tribute, emulated to its rightful status.