In March 2020 when we went into lock down I felt the need to walk through our local parks to ease my anxiety. I started to notice the ancient trees right on my doorstep, beautiful giants that I had not noticed before. I began to make observational charcoal drawings or portraits of 8 trees in our local park and these became the basis for a series of paintings. I was and continue to be fascinated by the marks, scars and history of these beautiful giants, essential to our fragile planet, completely unaffected by our current situation.