Tree (no. 1) (PP1219)

The stimulus for Bevan’s series of Chinese trees is rooted in his discovery of an ancient tree in the courtyard of a temple in the district of Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province, while travelling in China. ‘What attracted me was the tree’s contradictions and the endless forms that came from this, a bit like looking at clouds changing, I set out to explore its full nature, and the forms it held within’ (T. Bevan quoted in Tony Bevan: Chinese Trees, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong, 2013). Bevan’s first step into the Asian art scene was in 2007 and 2008, when he travelled extensively throughout China, visiting the cave paintings of Dunhuang, Gansu Province, and the great Buddha at Leshan.

In the present work, Bevan renders the powerful vitality of the tree’s twisting form through thick lines and daubs of pure pigmented colour scattered across the surface. His use of charcoal and his own acrylic pigments gives the work an opulent appearance and rhythmic tactility.