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Frank C. Buddingh’
“TREES, and plants, have always played an important role in my life.
I grew up in small Dutch village that was nestled in green. Our garden harbored predominantly many large beech and oak trees. They were not only the Beacons in my young life, but also provided me the challenge to climb these trees, (to the ultimate despair of my mother who had a fear of heights), but for me the top of one particular large copper beech formed my outpost to observe the environs. I could sit there, hidden in amongst the foliage from the rest of the world, in absolute solitude for hours. Looking out over the surrounding meadows towards the next village where I could make out the water tower close to my school, some six miles away.
Birdlife was rife and some birds were shy, such as the oriole that sang only from just before dawn till half an hour after sunrise, signing in the oak tree that grew outside my bedroom window…. I think I only saw the bird twice…..
Trees with hidden bird nests, trees that provided edible nuts from the beeches and acorns that I collected and brought to the local farmer for his pigs. He then kindly paid me my pocket money…..
It was the trees that continued to play a role in my life, growing so aware that we as human beings simply cannot live without them…. A world without trees was a concept that I could not bear so I made trees the central focus of my work, first as an arborist, to save and nurture them and to get them to know very intimately. From practicing arborist my work evolved into becoming an arboricultural consultant. To start to teach people about trees, their importance their present and past role as an essential element in our landscape.
I traveled the world and saw trees in different climes and helped wherever I could to become their ambassador. Following on from teaching and lecturing about trees I developed the concept of tree appreciation courses with the very goal that participants of these courses would never look the same at a tree anymore.
Trees show themselves in all sorts of different manners and that gave me the idea to turn parts of trees into art. A sample of that is now for the very first time on public display.
In the process of producing my art I am always guided by the tree: some pieces are just collected from nature and put on display, sometimes I have added a color accent – all paint colors are derived from natural sources: finely ground soils, mixed with walnut oil to form an oil paint, any ‘gloss’ has been added by using shellac, a product produced from the excrements of aphids, or colors have been created from coffee extract.
My pieces of art have all one thing in common: to present to you as an observer a degree of beauty that trees continue to present after life, the moment that the ‘tooth of time’ , nature’s ultimate tool to make trees and plants wither and return to the earth. I am honored to share with you elements of trees, their seeds, their bark and their branches being the prodigy of trees that have existed and governed this earth anywhere between 20 and 60 million years.
I offer an open invitation to venture into nature yourself or embrace this art so these trees may awaken a sense of wonder and beauty within”.
All work is for sale, if interested, please contact me at [email protected]
“TREES, and plants, have always played an important role in my life.
I grew up in small Dutch village that was nestled in green. Our garden harbored predominantly many large beech and oak trees. They were not only the Beacons in my young life, but also provided me the challenge to climb these trees, (to the ultimate despair of my mother who had a fear of heights), but for me the top of one particular large copper beech formed my outpost to observe the environs. I could sit there, hidden in amongst the foliage from the rest of the world, in absolute solitude for hours. Looking out over the surrounding meadows towards the next village where I could make out the water tower close to my school, some six miles away.
Birdlife was rife and some birds were shy, such as the oriole that sang only from just before dawn till half an hour after sunrise, signing in the oak tree that grew outside my bedroom window…. I think I only saw the bird twice…..
Trees with hidden bird nests, trees that provided edible nuts from the beeches and acorns that I collected and brought to the local farmer for his pigs. He then kindly paid me my pocket money…..
It was the trees that continued to play a role in my life, growing so aware that we as human beings simply cannot live without them…. A world without trees was a concept that I could not bear so I made trees the central focus of my work, first as an arborist, to save and nurture them and to get them to know very intimately. From practicing arborist my work evolved into becoming an arboricultural consultant. To start to teach people about trees, their importance their present and past role as an essential element in our landscape.
I traveled the world and saw trees in different climes and helped wherever I could to become their ambassador. Following on from teaching and lecturing about trees I developed the concept of tree appreciation courses with the very goal that participants of these courses would never look the same at a tree anymore.
Trees show themselves in all sorts of different manners and that gave me the idea to turn parts of trees into art. A sample of that is now for the very first time on public display.
In the process of producing my art I am always guided by the tree: some pieces are just collected from nature and put on display, sometimes I have added a color accent – all paint colors are derived from natural sources: finely ground soils, mixed with walnut oil to form an oil paint, any ‘gloss’ has been added by using shellac, a product produced from the excrements of aphids, or colors have been created from coffee extract.
My pieces of art have all one thing in common: to present to you as an observer a degree of beauty that trees continue to present after life, the moment that the ‘tooth of time’ , nature’s ultimate tool to make trees and plants wither and return to the earth. I am honored to share with you elements of trees, their seeds, their bark and their branches being the prodigy of trees that have existed and governed this earth anywhere between 20 and 60 million years.
I offer an open invitation to venture into nature yourself or embrace this art so these trees may awaken a sense of wonder and beauty within”.
All work is for sale, if interested, please contact me at [email protected]