Dense Woods by Jack Beder is a 5.5 x 9 pastel drawing signed bottom right. This meditative and grounded work celebrates the corners of the Canadian landscape. The painting evokes a quiet narrative of decay - the stump and fallen tree speak to time and impermanence, while the greenery reasserts itself in the background and foreground. The central focus is a cut tree stump and a large fallen tree, whose roots and massive trunk sprawl horizontally across the middle of the image. A sullen moment of natural turmoil, by storm or human intervention amid the otherwise lush greenery. The colour palette is dominated by deep greens and browns, with a sprinkle of ochre and lime in the right corner. The overall composition is compact and slightly chaotic, capturing the layered, organic complexity of the forest floor.

This piece was displayed in our Rookleys exhibition, Jack Beder: Life and Art in Canada.