John Depew Wood Art

John Depew, owner of Mill River Tree Service, is also a self-taught artist who has created a raw, spiritual enigma in our visual lives from the trees of the Australian Outback.

John’s career began at age 12, when he sold firewood and eggs in a small neighborhood in Westchester County, NY. His childhood goal was to buy a motorcycle, but his love for raw beauty awakened new light to John’s personal and professional dreams. John’s business evolved into a tree cutting service, which in turn created a new chapter in John’s journey; a new, enlightened mission to share the beauty of the Australian Outback’s trees with the world. John is an artist working, coaxing, and refining his sculptures and furniture from the natural woods he finds around the world.

During John’s adventures in the Australian Outback, he discovered his true talent; a selective eye for the raw beauty, unexpressed feelings, and the extinguished spirits of the trees that he had found dead in the Outback. It is here, where he began his collection of one-of-a-kind outback wood sculptures. His pure style of creative vision and inventiveness has been transformed into a very unique form of sculpture art.

John has always been drawn to the Yellow and Red Box Trees (Eucalyptus trees unique to Australia), Gidgee trees and other magnificent species of the outback. Each tree has its own unique fingerprint etched within its bark, ultimately telling its life’s history, roots and all.

“Nature is the real artist,” John says modestly, but it is he who envisions the artistic splendor of the Outback’s deceased trees, and shares their spirits with the world.