Ever since I visited Coldrum Long Barrow Stones near Trottiscliffe in Kent, I’ve been wanting to paint them, and in particular the wishing tree that stands near to the stones. I was told before I went that each ribbon tied to the branches was a wish, that someone had left there…I wasn’t aware how MANY there would be! A real wow factor!
![](https://jackieadshead.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Coldrum-wishing-tree.jpg)
The Coldrum stones are on top of an ancient Long Barrow and are well known in the area by various people as a spiritual place for pagan celebrations. I immediately fell in love with the ancient stones, as well as the wishing tree that stands a few feet back from them.
And I knew I wanted to paint them too.
But there was a problem, as the stones immediately infront of the tree are not the famous view of the Coldrum stones. The Coldrum stones are a few feet away from the tree, so you can’t see the obvious view of the stones, with the obvious view of the wishing tree…. so that gave me a challenge to consider, as to how I was going to capture the two together, to get the magic that made them.
I had a think about it, and then came up with the idea that I wanted to do to do the painting.
![](https://jackieadshead.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/P1050468.jpg)
Since the stones had to be painted in the way they are recognised, it meant that the wishing tree would be behind the viewer, so I had to bring in some artistic thoughts about how I was going to do it…then I realised that the tree is about the ribbons tied to it and as long as they were depicted in the picture, I had the soul of the tree.
I also knew I wanted to paint it in watercolour as I get more magic within those sort of paintings…as the paint sometimes does things that I haven’t planned, but they make the picture better through it..
I drew out the stones, and put them quite low down within the picture, there is a lovely tree slightly behind them, but lower down the bank so not as in sharp focus as the stones. I drew out the branches of the wishing tree above, and angled as a diagonal from the left hand side, which meant they pointed partly at the stones, but also at the tree on the right hand side. When I was happy with the composition I applied clear water with a large brush to the stretched watercolour paper (I’d stuck it to one of my boards the day before to make sure the paper had fully dried and stretched – theres nothing worse than buckled paper from it not being stretched properly). And then on the wet paper I loosely put on large washes of pale pink, pale yellow, pale blue, pale gold, on a diagonal from top left across to bottom right, which gave a nice good diagonal to the image – as the sky. When that was fully dry I put on the grass using veridian green and quinacridone gold. When that was dry I could paint the stones, since they were going to be the darkest blocks of colour. I used Paynes Grey as the darkest parts, I didn’t want to used a flat black as sometimes its overpowering.
Then I had the palest colours, and the darkest colours in the picture, so I could do the pale pinks with hints of blues of the tree on the right hand side – hinting at the branches, and sunlight shining through them – not in sharp detail, but enough to make it clear that its a tree.
Then it was time for the fun bit – the branches of the wishing tree and the ribbons tied to them. I also made sure that there was a lot of movement in the ribbons as if the breeze was blowing them. I wanted different colours, but wanted them to stand out against the sky, and the tree on the right hand side. I also added more twigs to add to the feel of the tree, and when I was happy that it all looked right, I added some splatter to add more movement, and more character to the tree, the ribbons, and the feeling of the breeze, all towards and over the stones.
I really like this picture, I love the delicate sky tones, and the hint of tree on the right hand side, the solid stones, and in particular the wind in the ribbons. I feel I’ve done the place justice.
What do you think?
![](https://jackieadshead.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Coldrum-Stones-wishing-tree.jpg)