A heart of haws and thorns, the Treasuring Trees exhibition

 

Treasuring Trees

Celebrating Derbyshire’s Trees
Buxton Museum and Art Gallery
Saturday 19^th February – Wednesday 8^th June 2022

 

A heart of haws and thorns

With pool-deep, peat-dark eyes.

He walks in from the woods,

He is the wood, walking.

Crataegus, G MacLellan*

 

Glowing, a tree of changing leaves invites the visitor in from across the hallway. Inside the work of three artists welcomes you into a wonder of trees. From ancient, twisted hawthorns to clustered birches and the spreading forms of old oaks, the trees of the Peak District are celebrated with photography, poetry, painting and puppets

 

Sarah Parkin, Valerie Dalling and myself all responded to trees in our own ways, creating an exhibition that moves from wide landscapes to fine detail, from tight observation to the unpredictability of folklore. There are also community contributions with some 30 pieces spread through the exhibition by residents of the area. Work from “my” teams includes material from members of the Lightwood Natural History Group, from Borderland Voices and from participants on Stronger Roots workshops organised by the Buxton Civic Association. These community contributions kept coming with more leaves on that tree than we could display so the “extras” have been assembled into a slideshow offering a chance for visitors to pause, rest on a chair and sink into the changing colours of more than 50 other images.

 

postcards

I tend to respond to most challenges as a storyteller and poet – and puppeteer - so my contributions here include poems about Alder and Willow trees, and the ancient Hawthorns of Wardlow Hay Cop (all three of us worked around these trees). The hawthorns reappear in a pair of postcards from my work available in the museum shop (and soon to be available on-line). The shop also features other postcards and greetings cards of some of Sarah’s work while exhibition pieces are also for sale.

 

Watching the proceedings are two large puppets that grew out of Stone and Water workshops in 2020. Drawing together thoughts, images and words from visitors to the woods of Buxton, these tall characters embody people’s feelings about those woods, especially through the tight 2020 lockdown. Now, hooked motionless onto a wall, they have danced their way through Grinlow Woods. Film of that can be seen in the video below ….if you want to skip the interview bits, puppets start at minute 3:45

And then there are the boggarts. Small, troublesome, almost certainly up to mischief, the Birch Tree Boggarts and their Spellbook have been trapped in a glass case (at least for now) while at the other end of the Gallery the beautiful Bilberry Bumblebee Travelling Display will introduce visitors to this rare peak district gem of an insect. (The Display (c/o Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s Pollinating the Peak project) is in the museum until the end of March when it will move on to Bakewell Tourist Information Centre). Between Boggarts and Bilberries are cases with some of Sarah and Valerie’s sketchbooks and extra images)

 

If you are in Buxton, please drop by. Step into our woodland gallery and immerse yourself in a celebration of trees

 

Events: 

Meet the Artists: 26^th March 2022, 1 – 4pm, at the Museum

 

Sales: through the Museum shop: postcards, greetings cards and some exhibition pieces

* Quote from my poem Crataegus inspired by the Wardlow Hay Cop hawthorns