Flooded Forest

Flooded Forest by Martin Howard (2014)
Watercolour, 30.5 x 40.6 cm, 140 lb fine grain paper.
Bergebo, Borlänge, Sweden.

When the winter finally loses it's grip and the snow and ice disappear, it is wonderful to be able to go walking in the forest again. As soon as I got the chance, I was off into the forest, to explore new areas after several of my favourite walking areas had been destroyed recently. Not by fire or any other natural event, but by some overzealous tree felling that had left a large area unrecognisable after cutting down too many trees. On top of that, a new water pipeline had been laid to the next town. One day, that might make a pleasant walk or even cycle route, but at the moment it is just a long stretch of devastated forest. I found a new path to explore and walked quite a way along it before I came to this spot where the path was totally flooded. It was icy in places, but not enough to walk over it. I was forced to go through some tightly packed young trees, but not before I had got a few photos.