Tansy Lee Moir

My work is inspired by trees, their forms, their history and the influence that humans, animals and natural processes have in shaping them; in the way they provide a solid representation of time. Old trees are time made wood.

I aim to capture their essence and energy, transmitting this life force through my artwork. I’m particularly interested in the old and broken ones whose stories are written in their forms.

I work outdoors and the studio, foraging for images amongst the trees, connecting with individuals through my drawings and transforming those intense visual memories into studio pieces. Bodies of work form around themes which chime with my own human experiences: veterans adapt inventively to their wounds and phoenix trees symbolise a hopeful resilience in the face of adversity.

My process feels akin to sculpture, carving out contour lines, adding and erasing deep layers of charcoal, scraping and wiping oil paint to reveal light and form. My work explores the sensual, expressive qualities of the trees I find but are still very much grounded in close observation. Drawing is always at the heart of the process and there's also something poetic about depicting living wood with its carbonised self.

Ultimately my aim is to make art which encourages us to really look at trees, to acknowledge and appreciate them as life forms which are a vastly different to, but no less important than ours, and to reflect on our own lives having learned from them.