Arch of green
- 📍 Location: Huelgoat Forest, Brittany, France
- 📅 Date: May 2023, dawn
Deep in the Huelgoat forest in Brittany, granite boulders lie scattered through the undergrowth exactly as local legend says they landed: hurled down in a fit of rage by Gargantua, the giant of Breton and Rabelaisian folklore, furious at the poor quality of the food he’d been served. Some say his treasure, or Merlin’s, is still hidden somewhere beneath these stones.
I reached the valley before sunrise in May 2023 and found it wrapped in mist, with one shaft of early light breaking through the canopy to trace a glowing arch over the mossy stones and the narrow path beneath. There’s a stillness in this place that feels older than the trees around it, as if the forest were holding onto something it rarely lets anyone see.
The branches close overhead into a continuous vault and the light arrives already green, filtered through leaves and then through the moss on the boulders below. I framed upright and from low down so the arch runs the full height of the picture and the path underneath it narrows into shadow.
At sunrise the beams come in almost horizontally at the far end of the tunnel, lighting the exit and leaving the near stones dark. That is the whole intention: a corridor of green with one bright opening, so the eye is given a direction before it is given a subject.
Awards & Recognition
- Chromatic Awards, 2023: Honorable Mention, Landscapes
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
