Forêt de Landévennec, c. 1986, first exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1986, depicts the woodlands surrounding Landévennec, a village on the far western Crozon peninsula in Brittany, famed for its ancient abbey, small harbour, and luscious ancient forests. The watercolour study that precipitated the oil painting, Forêt de Landévennec, was painted the year previously, though quite possibly from memory as there is no record of Coker visiting France in 1985. It is notable that at this
stage in his career, Coker potentially disregards the habit of a lifetime of turning to nature for a subject and instead looks inward, to his imagination or store of memories.

In Forêt de Landévennec, a magnificent lone tree extends over an expanse of long grass. Behind, the low-level forest runs the width of the composition but this singular tree, with a presence attributable to great age, is situated apart from the woodland.
Throughout his life, Coker was drawn to individual trees, focusing in on such examples as early as Tree I, c. 1957. In Forêt de Landévennec the immense canopy of this tree, rising uninhibited and unconstricted by other trees or shrubs, must have enticed
Coker. With a palette and handling process akin to the earlier The Palm, Château Garden, it is evident that the effect of southern France profoundly altered Coker’s perception of Brittany, where previously he had revelled in a landscape both tempestuous and foreboding. Golden yellow mixed in with the greenery of the boughs intimates the fall of bright sunshine and the occasional overlaying of blue onto the tree suggests glimpses of sky as gusts of wind disturb the branches. The majestic bearing of this tree is recreated on a monumental scale by Coker, its compelling presence epitomising “the dramatic and elemental” that made the landscape Coker’s constant muse.