Wood Engraving
1989
174mm x 126mm
If, as a Christian, one’s art is neighbourly service, as well as an expression of one’s love for God, it is helpful to listen to what your neighbour might have to say about your work.
After the great storm of October 1983 Peter went to draw the mayhem of uprooted trees and destroyed vegetation in Richmond Park… Fallen Tree lets us see close up a chunk of a magnificent tree, now resting in peace gently on the impacted ground, cleanly cut through by a chainsaw. A bit of sky and a brush of trees fill the upper background, and a few twisted twigs in the narrow foreground dance at the death of this huge, heavy wonderful creature. The age-old bark is honoured with various intricate engraved patterns, shining almost like the ribbons on chests of war veterans. And the two mighty sections of trunk kiss discretely across a hairs-breadth chasm of air backlit by wonderous light. We see stillness after the storm. Fallen Tree is a requiem…”
—Calvin Seerveld in “The Way I See It – Wood Engravings and Etchings by Peter S Smith” (Piquant Editions, 2006)
