The company of Trees‍ ‍

“Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky”‍
Kahlil Gibran

I know I am not alone in finding great solace in trees. From the cedar tree I climbed into for refuge as a child, to the woods near my studio, trees have spoken to me kindly and opened up a world of imagination and mystery.

We know much more about the ways trees communicate, beneath and above the ground, supporting each other in communities, sharing information and resources like it’s the most natural thing in the world. But it’s the communication between trees and humans that I’m interested in, what they have to say to us. We have so much to learn, or re-learn from them, not just about connection but also about being – how to navigate time and space as gracefully and pragmatically as the moment allows.

Trees’ creative responses to light and gravity – even death – give us metaphors for looking at life differently. How to be totally ourselves and an essential part of the whole at the same time. The way that trees feel into space and around each other is complex and sensitive, with an innate sense of balance and awareness of the whole. Intricate and expansive, they connect the elements: air, water, earth and ultimately, fire. They experience time differently from us, fully living in and adapting to the present moment. And as the planet spirals through time and space, they embody that movement and connection to the whole in their growth and bark and branches.

The paintings I’ve made are in response to the love and gratitude I feel towards the trees I see every day in my woods… I’ve painted with heightened colour and and gesture to convey the way they make me feel… their scale, strength, energy, determination and their wisdom give me endless joy.